


Fire In My Soul

by MadManta



Series: Midnight Purple [3]
Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII
Genre: Aftercare, Anal Sex, Banter, Basically They're Married Now, Bottom Rude, Butt Plugs, Cock Rings, Cock Sleeves, Dom Reno, Dominant/Submissive, Edging, Embarrassing Rude Is My Hobby, Extremely Sexual Rope Bondage, Falling In Love, Fight Club - Freeform, Fluff, Gift Sharing, Humor, M/M, Non Sexual Rope Bondage, Non-canon sibling relationship, Oral Sex, Reno Has a Very Fast Recovery Time, Romance, Romantic Flower Fields, Rope Bondage, Sex Toys, Shibari, Sibling Rivalry, Side Quests, Sub Rude, Teasing, The Turks DLC, Top Reno, Turks & Aerith Friendship, Without Saying The L Word, dressing up, fetch quests, sap, very soft D/s
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-24
Updated: 2020-06-27
Packaged: 2021-03-02 22:34:08
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 35,469
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24354397
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MadManta/pseuds/MadManta
Summary: An executive's daughter goes missing and the Turks' resources are wasted by being put on the case. Rude and Reno finally head to Wall Market, an area Rude has avidly avoided prior to this, to save the young woman. Unfortunately, it seems like everybody wants a little extra help.Alternate Title: Rude & Reno Rule Wall Market
Relationships: Reno/Rude (Compilation of FFVII)
Series: Midnight Purple [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1742764
Comments: 41
Kudos: 121





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> The current rating for this fic will definitely change. Things in store: fight club Rude, flustered Rude, tied up in ropes Rude, Aerith and Reno (platonically) torturing Rude-- There's a theme here, idk.
> 
> Thanks for stoppin' by, I live for your comments. Find me on Twitter @MantaWords and fill my inbox with Reno/Rude prompts. I apparently turn them into enormous fics. Oops?

This was not the first rumor of a human trafficking ring, not even the first in several months. The Midgar Unionized Police were normally in charge of such “petty” affairs as those, while the Turks were a force used to keep both the Shinras _and_ the company itself safe from harm, physical or otherwise.

This time, the person to disappear was a young woman who happened to be the daughter of a Shinra adjacent executive. A board meeting had been held between Shinra and two other big names within Midgar: Halo Farms, an agricultural corporation, and Daleran Industries, the construction powerhouse. Together, the three kept the city running: food, roads, sewage systems, and of course the lifeblood, electricity.

However, with the finger on the trigger of the metaphorical heart of the city, Shinra Electric Power Company had a bit of a monopoly on _brand image_. What this meant, was the SEPC was seen as head of the beast, and anything that happened while under their watch was _their problem_. The CEO of Halo, whose daughter had been the one to go missing, threatened to push nonstop media coverage about the city being overrun by _traffickers_ , and one thing led to another as the task force to find the girl was passed off from department to department. Finally, it landed on Tseng’s desk.

With the Turks on the job to find some daughter from whatever clutches she had fallen into, something was at least bound to get done. Reno hadn’t given one _shit_ about the end goal, but had jumped at the opportunity to get out of the damn office. He’d taken any patrol shift that had come his way, and that usually meant dragging Rude along.

Rude had been real gung ho about the whole thing until their first lead was in the slums in a particular sector that Rude tended to avoid business with. If a patrol took them near Wall Market, he would steer clear and had blamed it on bad blood from old jobs. Just the location made him skittish, and Reno had never managed to get an honest answer out of him about it.

But now, after a week of asking around about some trafficking ring and a photo of the woman to no avail, their irritated boss had told them to go to Tseng’s usual Wall Market contact and find out more of _anything_. Just finding the girl was more important than dealing with whatever had taken her in the first place. Reno hadn’t had to actually drag Rude anywhere, but it had been a very tense morning convincing him to get off his ass and catch the train to Sector 6.

Their contact had an embarrassing nickname, and _Chocobo Joe_ had no idea about any human trafficking. But when shown a picture, the cowboy’s face lit with recognition. “That looks just like the Colosseum up & comer,” he’d said, tipping his head with a nod. “Don’t know her name, but she knows how to make her opponent a sore loser, if you know what I mean.”

Reno grimaced. “Please tell me you’re talking about her beatin’ the shit out of people.”

Chocobo Joe stuttered out a laugh. “Uh, yeah. What else would I be talkin' about?”

Reno exchanged a glance with Rude, and Chocobo Joe made a thoughtful noise as his gaze settled on the taller man. “Haven’t I seen you someplace before?”

Rude didn’t give him a chance to look twice and headed straight towards the gates of Wall Market, shoulders practically at his ears. Reno took a long gaze between the poorly named Joe and then back at his partner. “Thanks, pal,” Reno uttered to the man in the ridiculous hat before quickly strutting to catch up with him. “Hey _partner_ ,” Reno sang, and saw Rude’s shoulder twitch. “What’s all _that_ about?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Rude forced himself to relax, shoulders easing back down. He stopped to let Reno catch up, pushing his shades up his nose. “C’mon.”

Reno sauntered up to him, and they moved together past mostly closed shops. It was daytime, but it seemed most of Wall Market tended to quiet down and close its doors until the light was dimmed to evening. When there was finally a place with the door open, someone straight up _wolf whistled_ out the door. Rude put his head down and speed walked out of view while Reno lingered near the entrance. “That for me? Or for him?”

“Not for you, sugar,” came the musical response, and Reno was so amused by that fact that he wasn’t even offended. Once again he found himself dashing to catch up to Rude.

“Okay, you have _got_ to tell me what’s going on.”

Rude did not respond. They were slowly approaching the Colosseum, and he had the look of a man possessed to not say anything until they got there.

Unfortunately for him, Reno took to that Rude-brand suffering flusterment like sunshine to one of Aerith’s flowers, and Reno walked backwards until he could step in front of Rude. Rude came to a stuttering halt, just barely keeping their bodies from touching.

Because that was a _whole other thing_ that had been the reason for Reno constantly wanting missions out of the office. Rude was impersonal as hell at the office, not wanting to turn their workplace into some sleaze-filled porn set. Every time Reno got a little too close, Rude became frosty.

Though the few times he _didn’t,_ they’d ended up hiding in the only unbugged conference room, making out until Rude had shoved him against the wall. It would have been fine had he kept _going_ , but instead, he’d just carefully tugged on Reno’s lapels and hissed, “Later. _Please_.”

Reno had left out a soft exhale of laughter, tongue darting out to lick his upper lip. “I’d say you’re no fun,” he hummed, “but that was fun.” His hands, which had been buried in Rude’s jacket, released from the expensive fabric and flew to the sides of his body. “Later, then. Yeah, yeah.”

Rude had stepped back, giving him an affirming, polite nod, and left the conference room like a man trying to smuggle a canned coffee in his pants. Reno had been better at keeping out of Rude’s personal space at the office after that, but it still frustrated the little horny gremlin in the back of Reno’s mind. On missions, patrols, _anything_ , Rude had been much more amicable to casual touches and power games, and now that Rude was looking more suspicious than he had ever seen in his _life_ , Reno had plenty of power to play with.

Rude was trying to look stony, and that was when Reno knew it didn’t matter what happened, this big lug was going to spill the beans whether Reno asked or not. Rude normally never had _trouble_ looking stoic and scary. There was some sort of weird, giddy energy in him that would normally surround a paranoid person.

“When you talked about ‘problems with old employers’,” Reno asked, and allowed them to start slowly taking steps towards the Colosseum. He walked backwards while Rude walked forward, attempting to avoid eye contact even with the shades on. “What kinda problems?”

“It’s not… They’re not _problems_ , per se,” Rude muttered. “Can we please come back to this?”

“Hell to the no, partner,” Reno said, poking Rude on his tie clip. “Tell me, right now.”

“I just happen to have a particularly close connection to a very uh, important pillar of the community.”

Reno’s footsteps stopped, and this time Rude did run into him. The full body touch jolted them both. Reno felt his eyes get heavy and then _immediately_ stepped back when he felt that horny voice at the back of his head screaming for escape. “Hey. No cheating.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Rude rumbled.

Reno waved his hand around. “No! Shut up, you—I can’t believe you’re taking advantage of me like this. It is insane for us to just walk around Wall Market when you already have a lead with the upper echelons. What the hell are you avoiding telling me?”

Reno had been joking about ‘taking advantage’ and _still_ felt bad when Rude looked chastised. Damn, he was too good. “Well?”

Rude sighed and grabbed Reno’s shoulders. “Just—hang on.” He pulled them out of the middle of the road and down one of the city’s many alleyways that were empty during the day. Now that they were alone, the paranoid tension slowly eased out of Rude, only then did he notice he had been pressed up against Reno, again. Reno grinned at him, eyebrows slowly sliding up as he stretched upwards, showing off bare skin.

Rude stepped backwards with hard-won reluctance. “There is a certain _entertainment magnate_ down here,” Rude began, gazing at a wall. “He’s my older brother.”

“What, Don Corneo’s your brother?” Reno sputtered.

Rude let out a sharp laugh. “First of all, fuck you. Second, no. Uh, Andrea Rhodea. The—”

“The _Honeybee Inn guy!?_ ” Reno asked, lurching away from the wall to be the one to grab Rude by the jacket. “You’re telling me that you have been sitting on the _single best lead_ for a mission like this, because the _soul-stopping sensation_ at the heart of the fanciest damn whorehouse in the city—” Rude winced, “—is your _older brother_?”

Rude was sweating. He didn’t respond at first, and then, scrunching up his nose a bit, said, “Yes?”

“I oughta slap the sunglasses right off your face,” Reno said, rolling his eyes and stepping back with an exasperated sigh. “The amount of time we’ve wasted.”

“Well, despite what you said, it’s a _night club_ ,” Rude uttered. “And I used to work there. It’s been years, but.” He shook his head. “It was enough to feel too weird to come back. Conflicts of interest.”

“I have wanted to meet that man for _ages_ , Rude,” Reno grumbled, folding his arms. “Come on.”

“Where…?”

“To the Colosseum, you fuckin’ spoilsport,” Reno sighed. He then stretched his arms out and crossed them, and his EMR, over his shoulders. “Whatever. We probably won’t even need to talk to your bro, anyway. Let’s go pick her up and get out of here.”

Rude exhaled shakily, now out of shame rather than arousal, and stepped out after him.

At the Colosseum, they were met with a placid-looking man in a garish red suit who blocked them from the elevator. “Only champions can go down,” he said, spreading his hands. “And, no one _lives_ here, sirs. It’s the middle of the day. No one is here.”

“Champions huh?” Reno asked. “How about I beat the shit outta your ugly ass in that ugly suit, how’s that for the elevator access?”

The man smiled in a way that looked plastic. Reno grimaced in disgust. “I’m afraid only champions can go down, _sir_. And that costs a lot of gil. So unless you plan on pulling out your wallets…”

“Listen, shitbird—”

“Reno,” Rude hissed, and snatched Reno’s rod-wielding wrist. He pulled him away from the door and out the building. “Quit getting riled up, that’s just a man with a job, and he’s right. No one’s gonna be here. If you hadn’t just threatened him, we could have _persuaded him_ to tell us about her whereabouts.”

Reno tugged his arm away. “Jeez, I get it. Chill out.” He rolled his shoulders in an attempt to look less like an insulted cat, staring in another direction. “Fine. So we gotta make a little fuckin’ cash request from Tseng and just enter?”

“It’s fifty thousand gil, Reno,” Rude said with a look that made Reno seem naïve, and that just made him more mad.

“That’s bullshit,” Reno said. “I’ve been to those fights, there are low-grade shit-heels in those fights that don’t have anything other than the reputation of bein’ crazy stupid. They don’t have 50K.”

“They have to pad some fights, and those fighters can also get sponsored,” Rude said, softly. Reno glanced at him and immediately felt a shiver of some feeling he didn’t care to examine get trapped in his throat. Damn the man. “I may have an ‘in’.”

Reno threw his arm around Rude’s shoulders, mouth pressed against his temple as he teased, “I guess I’m not mad.” He let go of him, to give him a bit of space, but Rude put his own arm over Reno’s shoulders with a tight squeeze.

“Guess I’ll have to try harder,” Rude murmured in response. He shook his head. “C’mon. We can’t just go see him, he’s got a weird schedule.” He let go of Reno, but the bit of touch was enough for them to resume their usual platonic aura.

“Weird schedule, like booked for twenty years? Yeah, I heard. He must _really—_ ”

“Nope. Do not finish that sentence. And I _meant_ more that he sleeps odd hours and has a chef for his ridiculous dietary preferences, and gets all bitchy if you interrupt a juice break or a yoga session.” 

Reno looked shaken to the core, but also on the brink of hysterical laughter at the same time. “Rude. I can’t explain what I’m feeling right now but I kind of want to choke you for saying all these words together?”

“Please stop feeling anything,” Rude muttered, embarrassed. “Let’s just—get in the front door, alright?”

Reno shook his head. “I missed out on a whole different Rude. A different man, who wore tank tops and hung out at Honeybee Inn—”

“I didn’t _do_ either of those things,” Rude said firmly, and then quieter, “usually.”

“Has it all been a lie?” Reno asked, the laughs starting to tumble out of him. “Are you one more bad job from slipping into a life of juicers and yoga mats?”

“We have _very_ little in common,” Rude huffed. “But working for him gave me a sense of peace. I knew I could keep him safe. And now he’s a big shot, he doesn’t need his little brother cramping his uh, ‘style’.”

They walked up to the Honeybee Inn, which, like most storefronts in this slum paradise, had a shifty guy standing guard in a greasy-looking suit. He took one look at them and spat, “No way. You two look bad for business. Both of you gotta get outta here.”

Reno was close to whipping his mag rod out _again_ , so Rude just stepped forward. “I’d like to talk to Lukas.”

The doorman eyed Rude suspiciously, though he squinted at his face. “Why would I let you do that?” he asked.

“Because if Lukas knows I actually came by and you _didn’t_ bring him out, he’ll take it out on you.” Rude’s head tipped to the side.

“Fine, what’s your name, Shady?”

“Rude.”

The doorman looked like he was waiting for something else, realized he’d gotten what he asked for, and frowned as he disappeared into the building.

Thirty seconds later, loud stomping boots clattered behind the closed door before it burst open. There was a muscular man with a shock of blonde hair and icy grey eyes in a much nicer suit. He looked a lot like how Reno had been feeling this trip: mad _and_ entertained.

“There’s our Rude!” the man said and rushed down the steps to clasp Rude’s hand. “Thought you’d forgotten about us.”

“Never that,” Rude said, trying to tamper down on the embarrassment. It was a little easier when Lukas began to twist his arm and pulled him close.

“We know what you do now,” Lukas said quietly, and Reno came up directly next to Rude’s shoulder with a threatening sneer. “Neither me nor the boss wants anything to do with Shinra business.”

Rude’s hand clasped Lukas’ arm, the leather squeaking as the two fought for quiet dominance. “This is about saving a girl, nothing else.” His free arm shot out to hit Reno across the stomach to stop him from stepping forward any further.

Lukas let go with an easy breath and took a wide step back. “Well, that seems more your style,” he said, voice warming. “Who’s your little friend?”

“ _Little_?” Reno hissed, hackles raised.

Rude just smirked. “That’s Reno,” he said. “And he’ll fry your brains out, so please. Watch your tongue.”

A flush of pride warmed Reno’s chest as Lukas nervously looked down and turned around. Reno could have sworn he’d heard ‘Sorry boss,’ under Lukas’ breath. This little trip to Wall Market just kept getting better and better as they disappeared into the club.


	2. Chapter 2

The waiting room was boring and tight for such an exuberant and frequently populated place. A fat-cheeked, well-groomed man stood behind the counter with a look of disdain as he eyed the newcomers. “Lukas,” he said with a nod of recognition. Reno flipped the guy off as they passed him and moved into a side room.

This one was quiet, with dark wooden walls and plush black carpets. The places to sit down were all white: chaise lounges, a deep couch, and one large central ottoman that could have seated more than the couch on its own. “Drink?” Lukas asked.

“No,” Rude said, but Reno spoke over him. “Yeah, somethin’ sweet. It’s been a real pain in the ass kinda day, and I’d like to improve my _disposition_.”

Rude glanced at Reno and barely suppressed an eye roll. Lukas shrugged and left them in the room.

“Why are you wasting time?” Rude asked.

“Oh, _now_ you’re worried about _wasting time_ , asshole?” Reno laughed. “No way. I’m getting the VIP treatment whether you want it or not.” He threw himself back against a chaise, kicking his feet up. His head hung off the armrest, making eye contact with Rude as his ponytail almost dragged on the floor. “Don’t ya think I’m worth it, partner?”

Reno did look _good_ like that, but he always looked good. Rude dragged his eyes away. “Fine.”

Lukas came back in with an elegant black tray in his hands and three drinks: a bright pink monstrosity with a chunk of fruit stuck on the side and two gin fizzes. Reno took his with a hum of delight, while Lukas gave one of the gins to Rude and took the last for himself.

Rude raised an eyebrow at it, but took the cocktail nonetheless.

“So,” Lukas said as he sat comfortably down on the couch. “A girl, huh? If she’s one of the ones here, you’re gonna have a hard time ‘saving’ anybody.”

“Not here,” Rude said. He’d assumed Reno would help with the discussion, but he had full on spread out on the chaise, using the neon yellow bendy straw to drink while it rested on his bare chest. Rude tried to keep Lukas’ attention on himself. “We have reason to believe she’s taken up cage fighting.”

Lukas looked almost bored. “What’s that got to do with our upstanding business?”

Rude allowed himself to sit on the ottoman, sitting forward with his elbows on his knees. The pose was intense, his gaze focused entirely on Lukas, who was shrinking in on himself. “I’d like to fight at the Colosseum,” Rude said. “I want to meet the other champions, and see what we can do about the girl.”

Lukas chuckled. “So you need a small sponsorship donation.”

“Something like that.” Rude finally took a sip of the drink and immediately regretted that nostalgia bomb on his tongue.

“Well, I can tell you he’ll be excited to see you,” Lukas said, swallowing half his glass in one go. “Though not as much, since you’re only here for money.”

“I know full well he prefers the attention for himself,” Rude said quietly. “He doesn’t miss having me around.”

“Hm.” Lukas did not seem convinced. “Well, as it is, I’ve just been stalling to get to talk to you. He’s not even here right now.”

“What!” Reno called, clearly disaffected and enjoying his sugary alcoholic treat with abandon.

“Yeah, _terribly_ sorry.” Lukas spread his hands and didn’t sound sorry at all. “He’s out at a scheduled brunch and event, and won’t be back until the evening. I also know he’s fully booked, but… If you do us a favor, I’m sure he’ll be willing to shuffle some time around.”

This was much more what Rude was used to with his brother: giving and hoping he’d notice. He hadn’t always been like that, but the fame had turned him into a righteous diva.

“What’s the man want?” Reno asked, finally scooting up enough that he could grab his drink by its thin stem and pull the saturated chunk of fruit off the side. He bit into it and was shocked by the juicy burst of flavor. Actual fruit in the slums was a rarity, but to be using it to garnish drinks? This place _was_ high up the food chain. He was surprised Rufus hadn’t spent nights here.

Unless he _had_ , Reno thought with an eye-widening realization. He was gonna have to ask Tseng about that, since he was still sure there was _something_ going on there.

“We have a particularly lovely show tonight,” Lukas was saying. “A show with a star who is the height of delicacy and softness. We’d like to _juj_ up the place. We already have a talented artist bringing in origami, but… What I’d really like is flowers.”

Reno’s drink slurping came to an abrupt halt. Only Rude’s lips in a hard line kept him from blurting out, _‘What, that’s all?’_

“Flowers?” Rude asked instead. “You know that’s an unusual request.”

Lukas finished off his drink with a shrug. “If you want to get yourself on Andrea’s good side after your big flashy exit, you’d better give us somethin’ good.”

“It wasn’t flashy, I left quietly,” Rude muttered.

“Exactly! You left a note! Disappearing in the night like a vagabond. The nerve.” Lukas cleared his throat, and his practiced smile displaced any other expression. “Like I said. It’d really give you a few extra points with him.”

Rude looked put out. Reno was impressed behind Lukas. This would be easy as hell and Rude was playing it up like it was a hard-won negotiation. Rude held out his hand. “Agreed. But I don’t want this to end up as a wild goose chase. I want to see him. _Tonight_.”

“Andrea does what he wants,” Lukas said as they shook on it. He stood up, flipping his dapper hat onto his head. “I can’t control him any more than we could control you. So, get back in his good graces. Then we’ll see about your request.”

Lukas made his way to the door. He paused to look over his shoulder. “You’re still family,” he said. “I’ll at least get you and your sweet-tooth friend here on the guest list.” With that, he tipped his hat and left the room.

Reno let out a burst of laughter in relief. “Ha! Whaddya know. Now I can hobnob with the worst of ‘em.” He stood up, leaving the dainty crystal glass precariously balanced on the soft chaise. “So, who is that guy? Mr. Honeybee’s big time bodyguard?”

“Bodyguard, confidante, husband, whatever label fits him that day,” Rude muttered.

Reno laughed. “Well, whatever. Can’t believe all he wants are some measly flowers. Wonder where our favorite little florist is today.”

Rude just groaned. “I hate walking through the slums. The train stations are so damn spread out.” Then he got a slow look of realization on his face and pulled out his phone.

“What, you got her on speed dial?” Reno joked.

Rude did not respond, thumbs flying over the phone for a moment. His sunglasses flashed.

“She’s volunteering at the orphanage in Sector 5,” Rude said calmly. He stood up and tucked the phone away. “Let’s get out of here.”

Reno stared at him. “You have her _number_?”

Rude sighed. “That phone ‘from Zack’ was from me. That was why I didn’t want you to _report_ it, smartass. Now, can we go?”

“Has anyone ever told you that you’re a lying bastard?” Reno gasped and followed the bigger man out of the Honeybee Inn. “Honestly! If you just would have told me this shit to begin with…”

“Reno,” Rude warned.

Reno huffed, throwing his hands up in surrender. “Jeez! Fine. Sensitive.” He kicked a rock as they walked out of Wall Market. “Did you talk to her about me?”

“When?”

“In Junon,” Reno uttered.

“Maybe once,” he said. “I didn’t really reach out to her. The first time she talked to me was the day you saved her from venomantises.”

Reno made an embarrassed noise as they made their way toward the Sector 5 gate. “She told you about that, huh?”

“I think you care about her,” Rude said casually. He pushed up his sunglasses. “I’d kinda be amazed if you didn’t.”

Reno tsked. “Whatever. She’s just another job. It sounds like you already have all the siblings you can handle, _little bro_.”

Rude shuddered. “Please. Don’t call me that.”

Reno laughed, sliding up behind Rude to throw an arm around his waist. The pathway was empty, with no people _or_ monsters, and Rude allowed the touch. “I can’t imagine you being anyone’s little anything. It’s funny.”

“At least he doesn’t actually call me that,” Rude sighed. His leather-clad fingers found Reno’s pony tail, wrapping his fingers around it to tug half-heartedly. “Don’t make this into a thing.”

“You’d better tell me right now if you’re lying about anything else,” Reno said, poking Rude in the side as they walked, hips bumping together. “Or I will.”

“No more lies,” Rude agreed easily, and let his hand move up to caress the back of Reno’s neck. He pulled him in for a soft kiss, letting their breaths mingle for a few moments.

Reno’s cheeks pinkened. “That all you got for me?”

“For right now? Yes.” Rude dropped his grip on the other man. “We have a perfectly innocent young woman to go shake down.”

“Why do I like you again?” Reno complained, following after him sulkily.

The walk to the orphanage was mellow. Rude almost stopped to coo at a pigeon, but Reno nudged him with his boot and pointed. Aerith was standing near a picnic table with three children all listening to her talk while they drew with fat crayons.

The Turks’ presence was so unnatural it was a miracle it took more than thirty seconds for Aerith to notice the two black-suited figures lurking in the shade. Aerith glanced in their direction, her eyebrows drawing up a bit in surprise. She murmured something to the kids, patting one’s shoulder before she sashayed over to them.

“Good afternoon, Flower Girl,” Reno said, leaning his head back and sucking at his teeth.

“Long time no see, Rat Tail,” Aerith said, leaning forward with her hands clasped behind her back. “I haven’t seen the two of you together in _forever_! What a nice surprise.”

Both of them had the good grace to look abashed. Rude tsked softly. “Sorry to interrupt while you’re working.”

“So you _are_ here for me,” she hummed. “Am I in trouble?”

“Oh, yeah. We’re here to read you your rights,” Reno said with a sarcastic sneer.

“ _No_ , Aerith,” Rude huffed. “We need your services.” He elbowed Reno softly in the side, and Reno’s smug expression didn’t change. At least until she stuck her tongue out at him, and for a split second he considered doing the same thing back.

“Services, huh?” Aerith studied her nails before looking slightly up at Rude. “I don’t work for free, unless you’re an orphanage.” She winked at him.

Rude felt his cheeks darken. He always forgot just how manipulative she could be. “We intend to pay you,” Rude said.

“Oh, come on. Really?” Reno asked, gesturing at her. “You’re gonna use your own damn money to buy shit for your snooty brother?”

“Didn’t you call him a sensation earlier?” Rude pointed out.

“That was _different_ ,” Reno hissed.

Aerith looked between the two of them, her expression soft. “You guys are so cute.”

Rude’s blush was _very_ visible. “I don’t _know_ what you’re _talking about_.”

Reno leaned in Aerith’s direction, raising a hand to his mouth. “He’s said that a _lot_ today.”

“Pushing him out of his comfort zone that much, huh?” Aerith giggled with a deviant little smile.

Rude gazed between the two of them. Horror dawned. “What are you two doing right now?” he asked and then shook his head. “Do _not_ even think about teaming up.” They both turned to him, looking like they were going to get into trouble. Rude groaned. “Fuck.”

“Nevermind,” Reno said, and slid his arm around Aerith’s shoulder. “I’ll pay you. It’s worth it.”

“That’s right!” Aerith said. “You never told me what it is you want, because I gotta say, I’m kind of in the middle of something right now.”

“We need flowers,” Rude said. “Probably too many flowers.”

“Well, I can certainly help you, but you’ll need to pick them yourselves. I really have to finish up with the kids.” She stood up on her toes and poked at Reno’s goggles, which got him to shrink back in surprise that she’d had the gall to just touch his stuff. She quickly made her way over to the front steps of the orphanage and picked up her empty flower basket.

She practically skipped when she came back to them, handing it over to Rude. “I trust you to pick the right ones. Then just come back, and we can talk about my payment.” She looked cute, an innocent girl offering the scary hitmen flowers, and for the low low price of—

“How much?” Rude asked as he awkwardly plucked the basket from her hands.

“Ask me after you’ve picked the flowers,” Aerith said with a shrug, and then made her way back to the kids, sitting down to color with them.

Reno shook his head. “For the record,” he said, “I hate this.” They started walking down the path to Aerith’s house. “Any time you try to do anything in the goddamn slums it turns into an all-day affair. Trade this paperclip for this straw! Trade this straw for this toy helicopter! Trade this toy helicopter for a fine bowl of porridge!”

“We’re trading money for flowers,” Rude said.

“And trading flowers for an opportunity to see your boy, and god only knows if we have to trade him something _else_ just to get his blessing, or _whatever_.” Reno stared up at the unnatural light sky. “I can only see this getting worse as the day goes on.”

They approached the pleasant inlet where the Gainsborough cottage stood, and Reno immediately veered right towards the large garden patches full of different blooms. “Do we just rip these out of the ground?”

“What are you, an animal?” Rude asked, giving Reno a friendly shove. What he did not expect was for Reno to be completely caught off guard, flying face-first into the flower patch. Reno skittered onto his back, eyes bright with rage.

“You sneaky fucker!” Reno yowled and leapt at Rude in a full-body tackle. Rude had to admit he was shocked to the point of indecision, flailing as he landed on his back in a pile of hyacinths and baby’s breath with Reno on top of him, staring down. The pollen made him sparkle. Rude swallowed hard.

Reno’s angry eyes grew a little heavier as a toothy grin stole over his face. “Come here often?” he murmured, forehead leaning down against Rude’s.

“Get off of me,” Rude said quietly. He wasn’t sure if he meant those words. The mere fact that his hands had instead settled on Reno’s hips, lightly pressing fingertips into the tempting flesh there, told him he didn’t.

“Make me,” Reno challenged, and then their noses were touching. Rude hated this damn whip-crack of a man. They had work to do, places to be, errands to be running _for his brother_ — What the hell was he talking about?

“No,” Rude said, and crushed their lips together, basket forgotten on the path. Behind the hill of the garden, they wouldn’t even be visible in case Elmyra was home. Reno made a soft, wondrous sound, and started pulling at Rude’s jacket buttons.

Rude stopped the kiss as Reno’s fumbling fingers got three buttons open. “Hey, now, no funny business,” Rude whispered, hands sliding up from Reno’s hips to his wrists. That gave him a good three seconds to prepare as Rude rolled them over, pressing Reno down into the flowers with a small grin of triumph.

Reno weaseled one of his hands loose from Rude’s grasp, reaching up to snatch his sunglasses off his face. Those warm eyes gazed down at him in a way that Reno still hadn’t quite figured out how to quantify. It was amusement, but so trusting. He chose not to think about why, only how hot it made him feel. Reno’s hand fell back into the greenery, still clutching the glasses, and Rude pressed down to kiss him again and again.

When Rude moved to nibble under Reno’s ear, the redhead slapped Rude on the back. “Are you gonna fuck me in a field of flowers?” In response, Rude bit him a little harder and Reno let out a giddy laugh. “You’re not, are you? Asshole.” 

Rude’s lips moved over Reno’s ear, and the deep timbre of his voice made Reno’s entire body shiver. “No. We should get up before we kill these flowers.”

Reno bit down on his bottom lip. “I’m on a hair trigger already,” he whispered.

“Sorry, partner,” Rude said, and slowly pushed himself up to his elbows so that he could just gaze down at Reno with that dopey look on his face from earlier. Reno’s cheeks flushed, forcing the sunglasses back onto Rude’s face.

“Whatever,” Reno huffed, trying to appear less affected by the hot press of Rude’s body, the masculine waft of his expensive cologne, the sharpness of his teeth.

Rude stood up, leaning down to help Reno up to his feet. Reno was a bit wobbly, but Rude brushed off his shoulders and back, and then plucked a small flower, placing it over Reno’s ear.

A tiny pleased grin lit up Rude’s face. “Cute,” he said softly.

Reno scowled, stepping away from him as he scrubbed the flower out from behind his ear. “ _Still_ the worst thing you can say to me,” he huffed in embarrassment. Not that he’d admit that it had made his heart stumble in his chest.

After that they picked flowers in their more natural state: Rude silently taking the brunt of Reno’s complaining. “How many of these damn things did he even need? Why didn’t we ask? Why does my _back hurt_ so much? Do I need to do more squats? Aerith’s gotta have a rock solid core. God, now I’m saying nice things about her. I hate this. Did I mention you’re an asshole?” Rude was smirking the whole time.

The basket was dangerously overfilled, Rude having to press one hand on the stems to keep extras from falling out. Reno looked put out. “I don’t even what to go back. I want to take a damn nap.”

“Well, we’ll have to wait until later tonight,” Rude said thoughtfully. “I’m sure we could rent a room.”

Reno’s eyes widened, walking after him with a hop in his step. “Oh really?”

“Yeah, then you can get your beauty rest,” Rude said with a soft cough. “You _really_ need it.”

“The next time we go out drinking, I’m ignoring you. I’m gonna take Janet from Accounting—”

“With a face like that?” Rude joked. “Good luck.” When Reno threatened to jump at him, Rude held up the large basket as self defense. “Don’t hurt the flowers, Reno. I don’t want to go pick _more_.”

Reno glared at him and stepped back just as they rounded the corner to the orphanage. He was the first to notice their problem. “Where in the hell is she?”

“I guess we need to go find her,” Rude sighed.

“What!” Reno whipped around. “No. We go straight back to Wall Market. Rude, if this turns into a _quest_ I am going to call Tseng and request to be _Elena’s_ number two man. You have her damn _number_ you can slide into her texts any time you want to pay.”

Rude gave a soft shrug. “Doesn’t feel right, but.” He pressed the oversize basket of flowers into Reno’s hands. “You protect these. The fewer chances you get to slap something, the easier this is going to be.”

Reno’s hands suddenly full, he got the look of a man barely repressing a tantrum. He slowly exhaled as they made their way back towards Sector 6. He was almost calm when a terrifying ghoul stepped out in front of them with those _all-seeing-eyes_.

“Aerith,” Rude said. “There you are.”

“Did the witch literally run away from us to _get the drop on us_?” Reno whispered in impressed surprise.

“I decided on the price,” Aerith said, putting one finger up to her mouth. The gesture reminded Rude of Tseng in a way that he was going to be laughing about _very_ hard later. “Two thousand. And I want to come along with you two.”

Reno sputtered, “Two grand?”

Rude choked, “Come _with us_?”

“Good!” Aerith said, and hooked her arm into Rude’s, squeezing between the two. “You owe it to me. There’s an awfully big man-shaped dent in my garden, and—”

“Of _course_ you can come with us,” Rude cut her off.

“Un _believable_ ,” Reno grumbled, shifting his arms around the giant basket. “Do I get a say in all this?”

“No,” the other two chorused, and Reno resigned himself to hate the rest of this day.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> content warning: non-sexual exhibitionist rope bondage (that sounds like something from the AO3 tag generator tbh)

When the trio appeared back at Honeybee Inn, Aerith let out a low whistle. “ _This_ is where you’re taking my flowers? Maybe I should ask for more.” She winked, and Reno just gave an annoyed grunt, irritation visible in his straining shoulders while he kept his arms around the package of blooms.

“ _You_ get to stay out here,” Rude said, removing her hand from his arm. “Thanks for the walk.”

Aerith pursed her lips, not wanting to let this one go, but scuffed the toe of her boot in the dirt in defeat. “Aren’t you forgetting something?”

Rude pulled her aside and out of view from the street to place what was not enough, but still too many, hundred gil notes into her hands. He pressed her fingers over it and said, quietly, “I will bring you the rest. But I need you to trust me, kid.”

She stuffed the cash into her jacket’s inside pocket with a short gasp. A part of her hadn’t actually expected to see the money at all. “But…”

“ _Scram_ ,” Rude said with less politeness than he’d meant. Aerith’s eyebrows drew down, and she looked away. 

“Okay. But I might stay the night here,” she said. “Don’t want to walk home alone in the dark.”

Rude stepped away from her, straightening his tie with a cool exhale. “Sure. We’ll drop off the basket later.” He fought off a grin. “Probably.”

Aerith turned away, and he watched her go. He only realized it had been a long, worried stare when Reno nasally shouted, “Ru-ude! This shit stinks! I’m dyin’! Hurry the fuck up!”

That caught the Honeybee Inn’s doorman’s attention. Rude sighed, pulling Reno along with him to the door. It was the same greasy guy, and he looked more nervous this time around. He simply nodded at them both and opened the door.

“Finally, some _respect_ ,” Reno panted, squinting as his eyes got used to the interior lighting.

Lukas was waiting for them with an impressed smile on his face. He rushed forward to take the overburdened basket from Reno’s arms and placed it on the reception counter. “These are lovely.”

“They cost _two thousand gil_ ,” Reno spat, windmilling his arms to stretch them.

“Wow, you really went there, huh?” Lukas asked, stroking the petals. “You spent way more than I would have. I’ll make sure he knows. Why don’t you come back at six?”

“Why don’t you get us a room?” Reno asked, leaning against the counter with his legs at a slant like he did whenever he was targeting a potential dance partner. “You got regular-ass rooms, dontcha?”

Rude leaned in behind Reno, whispering, “What the hell are you doing?”

“Don’t think we’re _not_ stayin’ overnight in Wall Market, Rude,” Reno said easily.

Lukas simply shrugged. “Sure, why not? The second we smell any Shinra trouble, though, you’re out on your ass. Deal?”

Reno stuck out his hand to shake Lukas’. “Wouldn’t dream of it, pal,” Reno sneered.

“Set them up in Quartz Room,” Lukas said, tapping in front of the receptionist. “On the house.” Then he scooped up the basket and disappeared into the back rooms.

When they got their keys, Rude pulled Reno back down several hallways and up one flight of stairs. The room was hidden away and perfectly quiet, clearly an under used room left vacant most of the time. The floors were a shimmering white quartz, while the walls were a warm satin black. There were no windows, but plenty of large mirrors to make the room appear a bit larger. The bed was just as soft and dark as the walls, and it called to Reno.

He was already popping his jacket open and shoving it off his shoulders, making a beeline for the bed. He landed face-first onto it, giving a happy little sigh. “Okay,” he said, voice muffled. “Now that we’re stuck here, come fuck me.”

Rude straightened his tie. It felt _weird_ to be in this place again, and even the enticing image of Reno splayed across a bed couldn’t get him to shake the feeling that something was distinctly wrong.

Reno rolled over onto his back and unfastened the rest of his shirt buttons. “Rude,” he called, knees bending to pull his feet closer to him to wiggle out of his boots.

There was a knock at the door.

“You have _got to be kidding me_!” Reno howled and threw his second shoe across the room.

Rude hadn’t even loosened his tie and was glad for it. He peered out the peephole and took in a sharp inhale; he wasn’t sure what he expected, but it wasn’t Andrea standing there with a determined face. Rude opened the door without thinking, and there was Andrea, expression morphed into a sly grin. “Baby _brother_!” he said, and embraced him, pushing him backwards into the room and shutting the door.

Reno did _not_ yelp, but he did jump off of the bed, barefoot and with his shirt open, pants intact.

“Hi, Andy,” Rude said quietly. The hug was tight and over quickly. Andrea Rhodea, in a particularly tight pair of trousers and a see-through shoulder-to-toe caftan, looked past Rude’s shoulder. The light that caught in the fabric caused it to glitter just _so_ , and there was Reno at the end of his gaze. Reno’s throat clicked as he swallowed.

“ _Whoever_ you got those flowers from, I want you to send her my way,” Andrea said, squeezing Rude’s shoulder and then walking past him. “And who is this firecracker?”

Reno was too trapped by the other man’s sizzling charisma to notice Rude’s _very_ irritated look. “ _This_ is why I never wanted to bring you out here, Reno,” Rude said flatly.

Reno shook his head. Had he been staring? “Ha! Don’t be ridiculous. I would never,” Reno scoffed but still stepped forward to take Andrea’s hand. He kissed it before he realized what he was doing, and Andrea looked _very_ pleased by this development.

Rude made some kind of strangled sound, and that was when he had well and truly lost his cool. It had taken all day, but it had finally snapped. Rude pushed past Andrea to put his arm possessively around Reno’s shoulders. “Andy, this is my _partner_ , Reno,” Rude said plainly. “Reno, Andrea.”

Andrea lifted one eyebrow with gentle amusement. “Hitched already?” he hummed.

“Ah, he means we work together,” Reno said with smirk, not feeling Rude’s glare. “But we also fuck. So.”

Rude’s face fell into his hand.

“Charming,” Andrea grinned. “Well. Sit. Tell me all about your _champion fee_.”

Rude cleared his throat and sat on the edge of the bed. Andrea pulled a tacky pouf of a chair away from the dresser at the opposite wall to rest in front of the bed. He pulled his long legs up onto the thing, one elbow resting on his knee. He had a practiced elegance, Reno thought. Reno sat at the corner of the bed, feeling a strange level of discomfort at this sibling reunion.

“We’re looking for a missing girl,” Rude said, and pulled his sunglasses off. “It’s been one thing after another. I just want a sponsor to allow me to join the Colosseum fights — that’s where we think she’s been hiding. Once we grab her, then we can get out of your hair.” Rude’s lips fell into an easy tease in the next moment. “Since you still have yours.”

“Don’t worry, Rudy,” Andrea grinned. “You look great with no hair. But let’s take a step back, shall we? Sponsoring someone is only really something I want to do if you plan on making me money.” Andrea tipped his head to the side. “If you’re just going to go down into the arena and pull a fighter out, _and_ take off, that’s going to lose me a _lot_ of gil.”

“So he’ll fight some rounds, too,” Reno said. He allowed himself to fall back on his elbows to watch the two of them. “Rude, you need more hobbies. You love punchin’ stuff.”

“At the very least,” Andrea said with a nod. “And I have one other request, too.”

Rude narrowed his eyes. “What else?”

“You still like being tied up?” Andrea asked with the placidity of a man asking about stock prices.

Reno lost the ability to _speak_.

“What—! Andy, whatever you’re thinking, no way,” Rude hissed.

Reno noted that Rude did not _refute said claim_ and struggled to catch the breath he’d just lost.

“Oh, please? We can do it with clothes on. The late night show lost their rope model, and it’s _booked_ , honey. Sold out house. We gotta tie _somebody_ up.”

“On a stage?” Reno asked voicelessly.

“You know it,” Andrea winked. “Come on, I’ll owe _you_ something. That’s gotta be good for your _goon_ business, right?”

“No goddamn way,” Rude growled.

“What about you?” Andrea asked, those familiar brown eyes landing on Reno. “We can put you in a blindfold. Cover up that shock of hair, a little makeup on those cheeks. No one would ever know.”

“Andy, I swear to god—”

“Yeah, sure,” Reno said, sitting up with a shrug that had _no right_ to be that nonchalant. Rude’s mouth snapped shut, and the noise was enough to receive a tsk from Reno. “Tsch, what? I told you we were gonna have to trade somethin’ else besides flowers, pal. Besides, I’m not so unfamiliar with the ropey arts, myself,” Reno said, stretching his arms above his shoulders. “I’m the one usually doing the tyin’, but if you can guarantee anonymity…”

Andrea clapped his hands together. “Honestly? That would be amazing. Sir Tristan will be thrilled.”

“Reno, you can’t be serious,” Rude said softly. “We have _stuff_ to do.”

“There’s no fight tonight, honey,” Andrea said with a shrug. “Stay the night, enjoy the show, and then tomorrow night we can get you in to rough up some bad boys and their pets.”

“You said somethin’ about clothes?” Reno asked. “Don’t really wanna get tied up in my work slacks.”

Andrea stood up, unfolding all those long limbs with such grace that Reno felt that distracted, airheaded feeling again. He reached for Reno, pulling him up off the bed, grabbing his open shirt and tugging him forward. “Big shoulders, tiny waist,” he hummed. “Good choice in a partner here, Rude. You’ll be a godsend. We have plenty of options for you.”

Rude’s fingers twitched so hard he balled them into fists, standing up. “Reno…” 

Reno tipped his head to the side, reaching out and letting his hand cup Rude’s cheek. “It’ll be fun. You can watch me up there, no one will know it’ll be me. And afterwards you can bring me back here and open me up like a present.”

“ _Very_ solid choice, baby bro,” Andrea said with a smirk. He stepped back and away from them, giving them space. “Send him to the ballroom if you agree to let him go. Then we’ll take care of him until showtime.” Andrea blew a kiss in the air, and then he slipped out the door.

They were alone again, and Rude prayed it would be for more than a short minute. He pulled Reno to him, fingers digging into the back of his shirt. “I just don’t like him touching you,” Rude muttered. “Feels wrong.”

“Cause he’s your brother?” Reno teased. His wrists crossed behind Rude’s head.

“Because you’re _mine_ ,” Rude growled, tightening his grip on Reno’s back.

Reno gasped sharply at the feeling, Rude’s voice filling him with a crackling desire. “Oh,” he said, and started quickly getting the other man out of his tie. “Still, I won’t let him lay a hand on me, partner. Somebody else is gonna do all the work.”

“Don’t care. I want what’s mine, now.” Rude pushed Reno back onto the bed and worked his shirt open. “Take off your pants.”

Reno was giddy as he freed himself of the rest of his clothes. “Yes sir!”

* * *

Several hours later, after Reno had been thoroughly _possessed_ , showered, and groomed, he’d convinced Rude to come down with him. Reno had tugged Rude to him in a light hug and murmured, “It’s just a performance. And if I get a boner, I swear I’ll think of you.”

Rude had actually laughed, pushing him back at that. Behind his shades, his eyes couldn’t be detected savoring the dark red bruise on Reno’s throat. “I’m not sure if that makes it better or worse,” he said, and then tugged on Reno’s ponytail, tearing his eyes away from the bite mark. “Fine, c’mon.”

Both dressed, they made their way to the central club room, which was a flurry of pre-event activity. Lukas had impressively taken the flowers and spiffed up every table, light, and doorway. “The whole place smells like the church,” Rude said with a grimace, and Reno nearly doubled over with laughter at _that_ blasphemous thought.

They headed to the bar to get drinks. Reno got some tropical party drink; Rude ordered a martini exclusively to watch Reno pop the olive and toothpick out of the drink and into his own mouth. Reno realized what he’d done too late, sliding the toothpick out of his mouth and chewing with what was almost bashfulness. “Sorry, force of habit,” he said. Rude quirked an eyebrow at him, taking a silent sip, turning to look out at the rest of the room.

It was easy to see his glamorous brother spot them across the space. Andrea approached them in long strides, a shorter man curled under his arm. Rude sized him up: about Reno’s height, slim build other than over-worked arms. He looked strong _and_ delicate, with the ability to hoist someone up yet still slip thin fingers through a particularly awkward knot. Long black hair slicked back and in a bun, and he looked like he could have been a Wutai native. His bare arms were ringed in black work tattoos, some designs crossing and interweaving.

“Here they are,” Andrea said with a pleased flourish. “This is Sir Tristan, he’ll be tying up our fiery boy, here.”

“It’s funny,” Reno murmured to Rude around the toothpick, “since you’re the one with the fire materia.”

“Hilarious,” Rude said dryly.

Tristan stepped forward, reaching out to grasp Rude’s hand with both of his in a hearty shake. “An honor to meet you. If you have any concerns about what I’ll be doing tonight—”

“Plenty,” Rude said, not meaning to let his neutral mask slip. Jealousy was an ugly look, and he attempted to squash down that feeling as his eyes leveled on the shorter man.

Tristan was disturbingly sincere, letting go of Rude’s hand. “Hit me with them. I swear to you, it’s all about the art form to me. Nothing else.”

“Party pooper,” Reno teased, clicking his teeth.

That did put Rude at a little more ease. This wasn’t the first time he’d seen a show like this done here, and despite the reputation of the place, he knew Andrea usually only put on _quality_ entertainment. “He’s the one you’re gonna tie up,” Rude said, jerking his head in Reno’s direction. “Talk to him.”

“Rian,” Reno said, sticking out his hand to get it shaken in both of Tristan’s hands. He did not notice Andrea and Rude share a lifted eyebrow. “And it’s been about four years since the last time I touched the stuff, but as long as we go over it beforehand, I’m tough.”

Tristan looked delighted. “Good. Let’s get you to wardrobe, Rian, and find a boot with a nice heel — ever been hogtied?”

They began to walk away, voices fading, and Reno just turned around to give Rude a thumbs up. Rude waved at him with his drink and a heavy sigh. Andrea slid up next to him to pick up the sugary drink Reno had ordered and forgotten. “So what’s going on there?”

“None of your business,” Rude said pointedly. “This is the thanks I get for bringin’ my ass back here.” He finished the martini in one ugly gulp.

“You know I don’t like getting involved in Shinra’s affairs, Rudy,” Andrea said softly, using the swizzle stick to draw little figure eights in the wide rim of his blue drink. “It is safe to say I’ve bent over backwards for you today, and all you’ve had to do is bring us some flowers and let an excitable little goblin get hung upside down. Where _did_ you get the flowers, by the way?”

Rude snorted a bit to cover his laugh. He’d never heard anyone call Reno annoying in _that_ particular way before. Andrea always did have a way with words. He spun back around to order another drink. “If I tell you, you’ll corrupt her, too.”

“Ooh, aren’t you the heartbreaker, Rudy,” Andrea smirked.

“Why do you call me _the worst_ things?” Rude asked, able to eat his own damn olive this time.

“You’re one to talk. One person on this planet calls me ‘Andy’. You owe me plenty,” Andrea said with an indignant huff. “It took a long time to get this place back up to what it was when you were here. Loyal help is hard to find, especially with the constant back and forth between the other sponsors.” He sighed, taking a sip of the drink and then twisting his whole face into a disgusted frown. “Good lord, your boy toy drinks these?”

“He has terrible taste,” Rude agreed.

“Must be, if he’s dating your boring corpse,” Andrea teased. He pushed the drink away and gave one more full body shiver at the offending cocktail. “God awful.”

Rude sighed, letting the corner of his mouth tip up. “So what’s your main attraction?”

“Lindi Frost,” Andrea said with a whimsical smile. “Exquisite dancer and master of the pole. Most of the traffic will be here for her, but I imagine your boy _Rian_ will keep their interest.”

Rude chuckled into the drink. “Damn right.”

“That’s the spirit,” Andrea soothed. “I’ll save you a seat near the front — for now, why don’t you go wander? Buy yourself something nice?”

Rude just finished the drink, lifting his eyebrows. The obvious _‘Something nice? In the slums?’_ went unspoken. “When will he go up there?”

“Ten,” Andrea said. “Don’t be late.”

Rude moved away from the bar with a small shrug, pushing his sunglasses up. There was nowhere to go, but he could at least return to the Quartz Room and update Tseng on their progress with a tastefully altered version of events.

The phonecall was draining, and he tentatively set an alarm for half an hour before the show and passed out.

When he woke up, the mattress was buzzing from his phone, but he could hear music faintly booming from the floor below. He pushed himself up, pulling his smudged sunglasses off his face. It occurred to him that it would probably be not _great_ for a very visible Turk to be seated front row at the Honeybee Inn, and he wondered about how he was going to deal with that.

Shades would stay, the only non-negotiable item on the list. But he wanted to be able to relax in the company of strangers, blend into nothing and watch something he wasn’t entirely sure he wanted to watch. No gloves, no jacket, no tie. He pulled off both his shirts and then just put the dark purple dress shirt back on, only buttoning it half way and rolling his sleeves up. He glanced at himself in the mirror and felt a shiver of insecurity run up his spine. He felt like he looked ridiculous and unkempt, but maybe it was enough to not get noticed. _Just sloppy enough_.

He flexed his bare fingers all the way to the ballroom, and then he shoved them in his pockets in an attempt to seem casual. As he entered the room, the artificial lights had switched from pale blues and yellows to dark reds and purples. The music was bassy and slow, and the entire place gave off the aura of being inside someone. He had to admit it was a cool effect.

He ordered one more drink, this time a tall beer so he could sit quietly and nurse a drink for however long this was going to be. Much to his dismay, his brother waved him down from a very close center seat. Rude just took it in stride, approaching him and sitting down quietly.

“I promise I won’t hang around,” Andrea teased, mouth close to Rude’s ear in the noisiness of the club. “There’s mostly just a few groups around you. You shouldn’t get singled out.” He raised his eyebrows, bowing deeply. “I have to entertain a little raucous group near the back. Wish me luck.”

Rude didn’t even hesitate. “Knock ‘em dead.”

“That’s why they pay me the big bucks,” Andrea winked, and was gone a moment later.

While he drank, he considered how true it was that Andrea seemed to give him plenty this evening, and it really _wasn’t_ that much work, in the end. Picking the flowers hadn’t even been a hardship. The club still smelled like flowers, and it triggered the memory of Reno above him, glittering and sly, and his lower belly filled with heat as he thought of Reno’s bright blue eyes and sharp toothy grins.

The lights shifted, bassy music dimming, and Rude was almost ready to deal with the reality of what was about to happen.

A spotlight exploded onto the stage, and there stood two men: ‘Sir’ Tristan, who looked the same as before, and Reno. _Rian_ , Rude thought with a barely suppressed grin. He’d been stripped of his expensive suit, instead dressed in low-waisted black leather pants and tight red boots with a sizeable, chunky heel. His hair was all but hidden, the long tail curled up into a tight bun at the base of his skull, his hair slicked back, and some sort of mask over his eyes that spanned from the bridge of his nose all the way past his forehead. It was also pitch black, a pleasant way to hide Reno’s face and give him the blissful ignorance of who could be in the crowd. They’d put makeup on him, covering the cheek tattoos and smearing dark red lipstick on his lips.

Also on the stage was a large bench and some ropes hanging from the ceiling with hooks attached, but Rude tried not to think about those too much.

Tristan welcomed the audience and began to explain his plan for intricately wrapping their volunteer up, ending with a final hog tie and the eventual rope removal. Rude wasn’t really listening, his eyes drawing up and down Reno’s figure. The hickey was still very visible on his neck, and he felt a flush of pride at having put it there. Reno was muscular, with broad shoulders and sculpted pics, but still had a lithe grace that normally made him terrifying. Like this, that chaotic energy was crammed into one nervous package. Rude was excited to get to see this, even if he wished every other person in the club wouldn’t.

Rude bit his cheek when he saw Tristan unwind a shockingly red rope. _Damn_. He would look good in red.

The music swelled again, and Rude was glad for it as he watched a stranger touch Reno intimately: holding him across the shoulders or waist as a basic chest harness began to twist into an elaborate full body one, twisting down his legs. A new piece of rope appeared and Rude watched as more of Reno’s pale skin and dark pants got covered by the intricate knots and lines of brilliant red. He watched the stranger press his lips close to Reno’s ear and hold his back, and help ease him onto his stomach onto the bench, and then his forearms wound together, then his calves. Reno’s mouth had a kind of slack to it that Rude was very familiar with, both on Reno’s face and his own. He could tell he was enjoying it. The jealousy flared up in his chest, but all Rude could do was drink his beer.

One more piece of rope hooked Reno’s arms to his chunky heels, and his body twisted up in an arc as Tristan tightened the hog tie. He hooked the third rope to the suspended clip, allowing him to circle Reno with heavy boot steps. Rude wasn't even sure how much time had passed, only that his beer was close to empty.

There was an interested rise in applause from the audience at seeing the muscular mystery man trussed up. Rude’s eyes narrowed as he watched Tristan’s delicate fingers slide over what bare skin was visible, occasionally pulling a piece of rope taut. He could see Reno’s mouth move, whispering a response. He knew what that much rope meant: Reno looked like he was covered in a red nervous system, and every touch of the rope made it appear as though that were really the case.

The envy was killing him, and Rude didn’t even know who he was more envious of. That was the real kick in the ass about all of this. He hadn’t been tied up in _years_ , and he remembered what it was like to give in to someone else completely in charge of your every movement. The excited hum every time the rope shifted or tightened against flesh. Rude was sweating. He was glad he’d taken the undershirt off, otherwise he would have been even hotter.

After toying with the precariously tied up man, with ten minutes passing of his legs kicked up, Tristan began the slow process of removing the ropes. When his arms were free, Reno kept them tucked in place behind his back, as if he wasn’t sure what to do with them yet. Rude envied that feeling — he could tell Reno had completely zoned out, his mouth tipped into the kind of smile he’d only seen him make after a particularly hard hit on a Rude-rolled blunt, and that in itself was a rarity.

Soon, Reno couldn’t be laying down any longer to finish, and Tristan was hooking an arm under his stomach to help lift him up. Rude couldn’t watch anymore, sliding out of the booth and heading straight towards the backstage entrance.

They took one look at him and shook his head, and Rude nearly felt himself puff up and scream, _‘How about I beat the shit out of your ugly suit?’_ Was Reno rubbing off on him that much?

One of the guards at the door whispered to the other, and they stepped aside, letting him pass through. Behind the stage were a few girls in those ridiculous honey bee outfits, but mainly stage crew in black and headsets, working with the lighting and sound.

From here he almost felt further away from Reno, who now stood on his own two feet, but with Tristan holding him tightly while the rope coils fell from his body.

Rude closed his eyes, exhaled, and waited.

He heard the sound of the stoplights slam off, and he opened his eyes. Rope was laying in a pile on the floor, and Tristan was carefully walking the very wobbly Reno off the stage.

Tristan’s eyes lit up when he spotted Rude. “Perfect,” he said, and placed the trembling Reno in his arms. “He’s still a little _woo woo_.” He let go of Reno with a smile. “Can you take over from here?”

Rude grunted his affirmation and wrapped his arms around Reno. His fingers slid all the way up his back to his head, where he could remove the stout blindfold, tossing it on the ground. Reno blinked his eyes, pupils still huge from being in the dark for so long. “Rude?” he said, voice a gentle caress. “You smell real good.”

“I’m going to pick you up,” Rude said quietly. “That okay?”

“Oh _good_ ,” Reno exhaled, chuckling like a fool. Rude sighed, squatting just a bit before he swung Reno up into his arms, Reno’s legs hanging off one arm while his own arms clawed lightly at Rude’s buttons. “You look good, too. Why don’t you roll your sleeves up more often?” Reno happily hummed as he pressed his face into the softness of his shirt.

A stagehand glanced up and down at Rude and gestured at a door to the back hallway. Rude had never been so grateful for an extraneous exit. In the hallway it was easy for him to reorient where he needed to go, even if Reno was making it difficult to walk. Reno’s fingers were sliding in and under Rude’s shirt, stroking his sweat-damp skin. “Did you see?” he asked softly.

“I did,” Rude said, clutching the man a bit tighter as he hauled him up one flight of stairs. God, what was it with him and carrying men up stairs? “You did very well.”

“I didn’t do anything,” Reno said, and pressed his face into the open V of Rude’s shirt. “I just stood there.”

“You’re the most captivating stander there is,” Rude said to mollify him, and it seemed to work. When they were outside their door, Rude murmured, “I’m going to put you down. Can’t open the door.”

“I can stand,” Reno said with assuredness, and only slipped a little when Rude carefully placed him on his booted feet. “You just said I’m good at it.”

Rude grinned at him, barely suppressing an eye roll, as he brought them into the room. “Go lay on the bed, space case.”

“You’re not the boss of me,” Reno said as he walked straight to the bed and fell back onto it.

“That job would actually kill me,” Rude said, and locked both the door and the bolt. He folded his sunglasses into his pants pockets, eyes adjusting comfortably to the unlit room. 

He stopped in the bathroom to dampen a towel. When he flicked on the bathroom light, he noticed too late that Reno had smudged makeup all over his damn shirt. He shrugged out of it. It took a long moment of indecision if he was going to sit there and _wash_ it, or if he was going to deal with _Reno_.

He flicked off the light and moved to Reno as quickly as he could, throwing the warm, damp towel on his chest. He unfastened the ridiculous red boots, throwing them aside, and then worked the borrowed pants off of him. He frowned a bit at the sight as Reno lay bare on the bed: covered in red rope marks that Rude did not put there. He scooted up enough to lightly rub at Reno’s face and lips with the damp towel to remove as much of the makeup as he could and then dropped it off the side of the bed. He kicked out of his pants and shoes a moment later to dive into the bed and crushed Reno’s body to him. Reno let out a long, sweet moan as he buried his face in Rude’s neck.

“You okay?” Rude rumbled, his fingers sliding over the slight friction marks. They would be gone by morning, but for now they were tender, causing little ticklish convulsions wherever he dragged his fingers.

“Yess-!” Reno hissed through giggles he could not control. “Stop tickling me.”

“I don’t think I will,” Rude murmured, and rolled them over so that Reno was on top of him. “Just relax.”

Reno was hardly in the condition to disagree. All he’d done was get tied up, but he’d been wrapped up in those ropes for close to 45 minutes. It had put him in a completely different state of mind. “Hey, Rude?” he asked.

Rude’s fingers were pressing a little harder into his skin, rubbing at his neck and shoulders, and then untying the tight bun they’d put his hair into. He slid his hands into the gelled hair, freeing it and letting it spike up naturally. “What is it?” he hummed.

“Why did Andrea Rhodea ask you if you _still_ like getting tied up?”

“You heard that, huh?” Rude’s hands trailed over Reno’s arms and sides, the shivers slowly dying off as Reno’s mind came back online.

“I could tie you up,” Reno said, lavishing soft kisses over Rude’s collarbone.

Rude stiffened at the thought, and his hand squeezed Reno’s backside lightly. “Don’t be ridiculous.”

“Your cock twitched, I felt it,” Reno chuckled, finally looking up to gaze at Rude in the dark. “I could, you know. If you um… Wanted me to.”

Rude’s cheeks flushed and forced himself to look away. He tried to think of something to say to insist that he did _not_ want that, but he couldn’t spit the words out.

Reno chuckled, rolling off of Rude to the side, but still burrowing himself in the crook of his armpit. “You definitely want me to.”

“Can we talk about this later?”

“Yup,” Reno said, yawning and throwing his arm over Rude with a tired grin. “You’re not gonna hear the end of it.” Reno’s hands splayed out on his partner’s stomach, tapping the abs. “Hey, Rude?”

“Yeah, Reno?”

“Why did Andrea Rhodea call you _Rudy_?”

Rude’s fingers began to tickle over Reno’s hips again. “Why the hell did you pick the fake name ‘Rian’?”

“Noo!” Reno rasped, trying to wriggle away and giggling involuntarily. “I panicked! I almost said ‘Rene’!”

Rude stopped tickling him to laugh so hard his arms went limp. “Rene. I can’t believe you’re an elite hitman.”

“Screw you,” Reno laughed, relenting as he let his limbs loosen and relax again. “Fine. If you don’t bring up mine, I won’t bring up yours.”

“Deal,” Rude murmured. They fell asleep easily, with Rude’s arm around Reno’s slender waist.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, this chapter has cursed me. I've struggled to move beyond it, and I feel as though if I just post it, the rest of the fic will flow out of me.
> 
> So here is this big nothing-burger of a chapter that I simply couldn't get rid of because I love banter and Rude In Street Clothes.
> 
> Back to Actual Plot and Content in the next one!

A cart had been left outside of the Quartz Room overnight. Its contents: Reno’s suit, washed and pressed (for once); a pile of clothes in Rude’s unique sizing; and a spread of fragrant breakfast sandwiches, fruit, and coffee.

Rude narrowed his eyes at it, but just sighed and wheeled it inside. The scent of sausage and coffee was the most effective way to get Reno actually out of bed, after all. Reno rose like a vampire from a coffin and devoured most of the food while Rude slurped coffee and took half-assed bites of a sandwich.

The clothes for Rude were old, remnants of things he had left behind that had been kept safe. Reno hadn’t even teased him about how his brother ‘kept the light on for him’ by having spare clothes, just grateful he had a fresh suit and that he didn’t look like he had gotten tied up and acted like a drugged-up fool afterward.

Instead, they looked through the clothes with mild amusement: roughed up jeans, a scuffed but supple set of glitzy ass kicker boots, t-shirts with faded band logos, a bright red hoodie with fraying cuffs and a cartoonish red Bomb grinning on the front, one crushed up ball cap with block text on it, a cracked black box, and one black dress shirt with the hem partially unstitched.

“I have never seen you wear anything like this in my entire fucking life,” Reno said, aghast as he picked up the hoodie. “Even at the club you looked like you walked out of a damn business meeting.”

“Pretty sure I wore my tight pants that night,” Rude said thoughtfully, picking up the black dress shirt and shrugging into it. It was tight to the point where if he was going to wear it, he was going to have to show off as much cleavage as Reno did. He hadn’t realized he’d put on that much _mass_ in a decade, but it wasn’t unusual. He frowned, letting it flutter back to the ground.

“I had been _joking_ about missing out on a completely different man,” Reno said, and then snapped his fingers. “Hold up. You’re gonna join the fights, right?”

“That’s the plan,” Rude said quietly, returning to his earlier plan of attempting to wash the makeup off of his two hundred gil dress shirt. He wandered into the bathroom to fill the sink.

Reno came into the bathroom to watch a shirtless Rude scrub at beige and crimson stains with a smirk. “Once again, it probably shouldn’t be _Rude, the Turk_ out there. In the suit.”

Rude gave a half-hearted shrug. “Doesn’t matter. Suit’s got reinforced knees and elbows. Best for what I want to do, since you volunteered me to stick around for the actual fighting.” He glanced up at the redhead with a pointed look and returned to pouring overly perfumed hotel soap onto the shirt.

“Yeah, I can already tell you that shirt’s not comin’ back from what you’re doing to it, partner,” Reno grinned. “And it looked like that _other_ dress shirt was too small since you’re a hulking mass of muscles.”

“Hardly,” Rude uttered, irritation building up as he scrubbed. He should have just left the shirt alone, the jacket would have covered up the smears, but now it was soaked _and_ possibly damaged from the cheap soap and friction.

“Come onnnnn,” Reno said, turning off the bathroom taps and snatching Rude’s wrist. He pulled him back out to their breakfast and clothes. “You know you’re not fighting alone, right? You, we, need an alias.”

“No, I don’t think you’ll be fighting anything. And what is with you and fake names?” Rude chuckled, getting led back to the pile. He didn’t really have a desire to put any of these clothes on his body. He’d had a particular image to maintain before, and as a modern man he had been free to leave that behind for his more upscale lifestyle. It was a definite preference over the items spread out over the bed.

“This hat says ‘BURNT N TURNT’ on it,” Reno said in awe. “You were like a full-on hoodlum, weren’t you?”

Rude’s discomfort level was rising. “I don’t really _subscribe_ to having ever been—”

“You were just as bad as me,” Reno grinned, his smile terrifying in its intensity. “Ha! This is _actually_ the best overnight fetch quest we’ve ever been forced to go on. And you’ll be fighting alone over my dead body, so.”

“Reno…”

“Strip,” Reno said. His eyes were icy, holding Rude’s gaze with ferocity. “Start coming up with your _gladiator name_ , partner.”

Rude stared at him, fingers flexing. He didn’t have to take this attitude from Reno. Hell, they could disappear up to the plate, and he could just _buy_ something that wasn’t caked in bad-tasting nostalgia. He could even dig up some Shinra modified helmet that would cover his damn face.

Reno sucked at his teeth, looking unimpressed as Rude stood frozen.

That was just it, wasn’t it? Rude had a cool, collected image. It’s what kept him scary: Reno was the lightning in a bottle up front, with Rude’s decisive crushing hand quietly behind. The unknown, the unreadable.

The clothes were tattered from love and use and had bands he _actually_ listened to on them. He’d gotten the hat for his early affinity for fire materia _and_ his skills as a consumer of fine grasses. The hoodie embodied a lot of why people were afraid of him: explosive power and fire. Those damn boots had tacky metal studs all over them, a gift from a rambunctious ex-girlfriend.

They were _too_ personal. They made him feel like a person he hadn’t been in a decade: a person people probably _remembered_.

Rude finally defrosted, and his fingers worked his belt open. “As long as you know,” he said, a kind of unsettling calm falling over him, “that I hate this.”

“What is it Aerith said?” Reno said in an amused growl. “I’m _taking you out of your comfort zone_ , Rude.”

Rude pushed his pants down, standing in boxer briefs and socks, and tried to look annoyed. That was better than that ‘pit of despair’ feeling that was hovering just below his veneer of calm.

Reno held up a pair of jeans, distressed on one knee, and threw them at him while he continued to dig. “Who listens to this shit? _Poison Marl_?”

Rude filled out the denim like they were painted on, but he was able to move. He lifted his leg up in a full kick and then brought his foot down. No suspicious seams made a noise. At least he had a full range of motion, even if he was going to feel uncomfortable. “I like reggae.”

“Really?” Reno asked in surprise. _“_ These are metal bands, too. _Sludge Pipe_? _Death Blow_? Wait, _and_ hippie music? You have a _Fury Brand_ t-shirt?” Reno threw the only black shirt with Sludge Pipe’s oozing logo at Rude’s hands.

“When did this become an interrogation?” Rude huffed, pulling the shirt over his head. It was definitely tighter than before. The nipple piercings were subtly visible, but Reno pretended not to notice.

“You just never talk about this stuff,” Reno said with a shrug. “I didn’t think you listened to all these different types of music, yo. I figured—is this a _jewelry box_!?”

“I’m not wearing rings,” Rude said. “Just give me the damn boots.”

Reno tossed the heavy boots at him but seemed very taken with the cracked black box. It was full of fat metal rings, long necklaces, and an ancient vial of cologne. The jewelry was all large with materia-friendly pendants; one of the rings was large enough to slot a piece of materia into, _and_ it was the shape of a skull. Reno’s eyebrows had gone so high they nearly met his hairline. “You had such bad taste,” he said, and sounded giddy. “You _have to wear this_. Otherwise I’m takin’ it.” He looked up then to see Rude standing there like teenage Reno’s wet dream, shouldering his way into the bright red hoodie.

He thought for a moment to months prior: _It’s my favorite color. Red._

Rude looked mad as hell, and that just made this better. “Nevermind,” Reno said, and threw the ring at him. “You’re gonna use that. Isn’t your materia in your gloves?”

Rude caught it, though he held it like it was disgusting. “Why wouldn’t I wear my gloves?”

“Boy,” Reno said, and took two steps to press his body in one long line up against Rude’s. “The second we step out of this building, you need to leave that Turk thing behind.”

Rude raised an eyebrow at him. “Yes, I’ll just be attached at the hip to another Turk.”

Reno snapped his fingers for the second time, stepping back, his own genius more important than touching as much of Rude in _comfortable clothes_ as possible. “We’ll go full under cover. That fuckin’ wardrobe Sir Whatsis took me to last night had all sorts of shit. I can be Rian, _easy_.”

How was this getting worse? “Reno, _why_?”

“You don’t think that little bird who escaped her cage isn’t gonna go running the second she sees one of us at the Colosseum?” Reno nodded, pressing a fist into his palm. “This way we can sleaze our way through Wall Market a little more _undetected_.”

“Plenty of people already recognized me,” Rude pointed out.

“Nah, not as a Turk, Rude,” he said, now convinced of his wiles. “They knew you from Andrea. This is perfect. You can’t fight me on this. Now put the damn ring on. And the hat. I’ll be back.”

“Nothing flashy,” Rude warned.

“You are _still_ not the boss of me,” Reno said, sticking his tongue out as he slipped out of the room.

Rude put the hat on, brim facing backwards, and sighed as he pulled the tacky ring out. One slot wouldn’t be enough, but… He dug out a necklace, a thick chain with connected slots, and sighed. “Here goes nothing.”

He transferred the relevant materia into the jewelry, tucked the necklace under his shirt, and placed the ring on his middle finger. He dug out his wallet and his phone, stuffing them into his pockets, and then felt odd as he walked, like something was missing.

He snatched his work slacks, pulling the chains off of them, and clipped them onto his jeans. He rubbed a hand over his chin and then got a strange notion of inspiration as he made his way to the bathroom and picked up a razor.

Rude had not been bare faced in nearly a decade, but he had when he’d been back here. It was almost hard to recognize himself afterwards. He snatched the bottle of cologne from the jewelry box and eyed it with suspicion, but gave in, and the scent on his neck took him back to alleyway cigarettes, sweat and glitter.

With that, he escaped the confines of his room and slipped out of the inn to wait for Reno. Today’s doorman was different from the day before, and he didn’t even notice Rude move past to lurk in the shadows. The redhead emerged soon after with a self-satisfied grin.

His shirt was a very baggy white muscle tee with a huge honeybee on it; the shirt was so large on Reno that it was easy to see flashes of his nipples when he turned to the side. The tight jeans were a similar style to Rude’s, and those damn red boots from the night before were tucked under them. He was wearing a black bandana to cover the burst of red hair on top, but had let his ponytail loose, letting it spread across his back. Lastly, he was covered in Rude’s old jewelry, at least four rings and a slim bronze chain glittering around his neck.

Rude pushed his sunglasses up his nose with a gulp and wasn’t entirely sure how he felt about it at all until Reno’s eyes found him. He watched them grow wide and interested before he stalked towards Rude.

Even Reno’s gait seemed to switch, his arms swinging with extra momentum and his hips gaining an extra swish. Rude had to admit that a guy like that may have caught his eye earlier on, when he’d preferred to seek out eccentric artist types who acted like he wasn’t worth the time of day. They enjoyed getting railed the hardest.

Reno sidled up to him, pulling an item out from his back pocket and handed it over: a pair of aviator sunglasses, much less sleek, with big black frames that would take up a bit more of Rude’s face.

“Got a name, stranger?” Reno asked, and—was he chewing _bubblegum_?

“Everyone already knew me as Rude,” he said, shrugging. “Just Rude.” He pulled his expensive sunglasses off and tucked them into his hoodie before sliding the huge ones on his face. The effect was complete: with the hat and the sunglasses, the only thing he had left of The Turk were the chains on his pants. He still felt queasy from self consciousness, but at least he’d be harder to recognize him as the stiff from the day before.

Reno whistled. “Well, _Rude_ ,” he said, like he was genuinely tasting the name for the first time, “why don’t we go looking for trouble?” His hand came up to to cup Rude’s bare cheek lightly, and Reno’s breath hitched.

“Whatever you say, Rian,” Rude said, and his lips split into a self-righteous smirk before turning around and leaving Reno sputtering.

“H-hey!” he stuttered and chased after him. Reno was _real_ into this.“How d'you know my name?”

“What, you didn’t know? Andrea’s my brother,” Rude said with a shrug, shoving his hands into his hoodie pocket. “I know all the stage talent.”

Rude didn’t have to see Reno’s face to know it was flashing between amusement and irritation. “ _Talent_?” Reno scoffed. “Makes me sound like some sort of entertainer. I did that stuff out of the goodness of my heart.” He raised one dark eyebrow at Rude.

Rude shrugged. “Sounds like you gave away somethin’ for free,” he hummed. “You got a raw deal.”

“Still working on the raw part,” Reno muttered, and that sufficiently colored Rude’s cheeks. Ha! Success. “Where are you even going?”

The two stepped out into one of the main thoroughfares of Wall Market: it was just as dead during the day as it had been before, but there were a variety of small restaurants open. “The Colosseum won’t be open for a few hours,” Rude uttered thoughtfully as he tried to get his bearings. The chances that the girl they were looking for stayed at an inn in Wall Market weren’t _great_ , but dressed like two street walking idiots, they had a chance of getting a little better at snooping out clues.

“Noodle place,” Rude decided, and took a sharp left turn down a narrow street. Reno stuck by him, his hands stuck in his tight pockets, elbows occasionally brushing Rude’s arm. Reno didn’t ask any more questions, just enjoyed the unambiguous closeness he could have like this. On a mission, suited up, Rude tended to still want to keep them out of anyone’s sight. But like this, they were just two more degenerates that no one gave a damn about.

It was kinda freeing, knowing he could just return to his cushy life afterwards. Reno was enjoying this whole thing immensely. It was harder for him to read Rude’s expressions. No beard, his whole head covered, those big sunglasses. Normally he could hear the soft squeak of Rude’s leather gloves if something made him furious; now he could only hear the familiar jingle of his chains, and even they sounded different on denim.

Rude stopped short, causing Reno to windmill his arms to keep his balance. “Hey, what’s the big idea?”

Rude frequently chose not to talk, either remaining quiet or simply letting out a few choice grunts. But this time his mouth was open, lightly moving, and Reno could see the tips of his ears going dark red. “This-was-a-mistake,” he said quickly, turning around and attempting to walk away.

“Whoa, partner,” Reno said, so surprised by the change in attitude it knocked him out of his little ‘role’. He snatched Rude by the elbow and turned to look at what had set him off.

They were close to the noodle place, which seemed to be booming. There were several tables outside with shoddy umbrellas set up over them and sitting at one was none other than Andrea Rhodea.

“What, you’re afraid of him?” Reno scoffed, and then looked over Andrea’s shoulder.

His brunch guest was a very exuberant girl with big brown hair, scary green eyes, and a pink dress.

Reno felt his mouth twist up. “Oh, _good_.”

“No, please,” Rude muttered, trying to tug his arm free. “Not this. _Anything_ but this, Reno.”

“Aw, are you scared of your teenage sister?” Reno teased, fluttering his eyelashes at him. “C’mon, she won’t blow it. Look at how much fun they’re having.” Rude was digging his heavy heels in, but Reno was persistent. He leaned in close to Rude’s ears. “If she managed to find him, she might have already weaseled something out of him. We should go prevent any _mishaps_.”

Rude had literally dragged corpses through sewers. He’d shot a man between the eyes. He’d cracked skulls with his knees.

He did _not_ want to do this, and yet he still let Reno drag his clomping boots towards the table.

“—because of the butterfly knife!” Andrea was saying, and Aerith sat laughing in delight when she stopped short at the sight of two _very_ familiar men, one of whom looked like he was hoping the earth would swallow them all. Andrea looked up and lit up. “Baby brother! Look at _you!_ ” Andrea shot up out of seat and pulled Rude into a hug. “ _Much_ better like this.”

Rude was as stiff as a sector pylon. Reno on the other hand pulled a chair out, turning it around backwards so he could sit down and cross his arms over the back. He winked at Aerith. “Well ain’t you a pretty little lady,” he cooed. “You know Mr. Rhodea here?”

“I—um.” Aerith was biting her lip, struggling to keep her composure. She’d seen Rude dozens of times in her life, but like _this_? “I was just wandering around and he told me I smelled divine, like the most _wonderful_ flowers he’d just purchased.”

Rude groaned and threw himself into the chair opposite Reno. “Those were a damn gift,” he huffed.

Andrea’s bright eyes took on a scheming glint. “Oh, good. I didn’t want to have to add that to your champion tab.”

“Champion?” Aerith asked, and then looked a little surprised. “The _fighting_ place? Where people punch each other, and dogs, and big weird spiny cars?”

Reno tapped his nose. “You’re lookin’ at the next big thing.”

“I ought to drag you in there with me, _Rian_ ,” Rude said, his voice changing, a little more gruff, a little more teasing. “You’re causing enough trouble for me as it is.”

“I have never caused trouble in my _life_ ,” Reno said, and all three of his companions stared at him in a way that implied that even if the three of them _didn’t_ know who he actually was, they still wouldn’t have believed him.

“Ooh, I could fight with you,” Aerith piped up. That got Rude to choke. “I’m pretty handy with my staff.”

“That’s quaint, little lady,” Rude said, trying to recover. “I’m not going to put anyone so sweet in danger.”

“Are you _flirting_ with me?” Aerith teased, at the same time Reno blustered, “I ain’t sweet!?”

Rude actually leaned forward, tipping his sunglasses down and looked at Aerith with those deep brown eyes, before pushing the sunglasses back up. He gave a little shrug. “Is that what you want?” Aerith’s face grew very pink.

Andrea laughed so hard that he had to clap Rude on the shoulder. “See! You see what they beat out of you up there?” He sighed with a smile, digging his chopsticks into his cold noodle salad. “You both look marvelous.” Andrea’s eye landed on Reno, and Reno could have sworn it sparkled. “Especially you, flaunting my merchandise.”

“At least somebody thinks I look good,” Reno huffed, sticking his tongue out.

Rude’s mouth spread into a slack grin that showed more teeth than usual, and Reno felt a very warm feeling build in the pit of his stomach at the sight. “You _look_ like trouble. I like trouble just fine.” He tipped his head a bit. “Sensitive.”

Reno hadn’t been this caught off guard since they’d gone to the club. Turning his usual insult around on him had left him floundering. Andrea Rhodea, the single most beautiful man in Wall Market, couldn’t hold a candle to this irritating tall dude in a backwards-facing hat, and Reno was going to milk that experience for all he was worth.

“Well, it’s settled, then. You’ll be putting the two of us in the tourney,” Reno said, slouching over the chair. “But maybe we could escort this young lady home first.”

Rude was glad for the sunglasses. It was easier to hide the fond surprise he’d felt at the suggestion. They had time to burn, and it gave them a reason to roam and ask around. He shrugged. “Sure. As long as it’s not too far.”

Aerith rolled her eyes. “You two are the worst. Are you trying to get me away from Andrea?”

“Yes,” Rude said while Reno exclaimed, “No!”

Andrea bowed his head with a pleased little grin. “You heard them, missy. I have to get their information setup at the Colosseum. I bet you could get into all sorts of trouble without these boys around.”

Aerith stood up and gave a quick bow. “Thank you for brunch, it was very nice to meet you!”

Andrea waved the three of them off, and the walk back to Sector 5 was mainly to the tune of Aerith and Reno’s laughter while Rude stood slightly behind them in silent amusement.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Special appearances by Jules, Scotch, Kotch, and Beck's Bandits. Johan Irae was right, this really is just Turks DLC. Some regrets.
> 
> Also, according to FF7R's Ultimania book, Jules and Andrea are actually brothers so uh... I had to..........do some things............. (Sidenote, HUUUUUUGE THANK YOU to deltazombie for being such great inspiration for this story. You are totally my bro.)

Most of the day had been spent escorting Aerith back to her home, and then weaving through Sector 5 snooping for any information about the woman, but no one had heard of Hildegarde, the young woman they were looking for. By the time they returned to Wall Market, the sun lamps were dimming. Rude kicked a stone with his ridiculous studded boots.

“I know where we should go next,” he said, and did not sound enthusiastic. “I just don’t want to.”

Reno had long-since dropped his Rian persona, finding no one looked at either of them twice dressed the way they were. He had to admit he wasn’t surprised that the only thing that looked out of place in the slums was a _suit_. “Is it a place to get food? I’m bushed, and we still have to punch a bunch of shit today.”

“Nope,” Rude said, but he didn’t enjoy the answer. He was hungry, too. He had a strong feeling they’d be drinking Heavy Tank Energy drinks and packets of peanuts out of the colosseum vending machines. “It’s the old men’s hall. The gym.”

Reno tapped his finger on his lips. “Wait — wait. When we first came down here, and walked past, someone _whistled_ at you from there. You know someone from the gym, Rude?”

Rude’s shoulders hunched up at his ears. “You could say that.”

“Why are you still like this?” Reno laughed, cuffing him on the arm. “I already know all your secrets, after that night at the Honeybee Inn.”

The color drained from Rude’s face as he’d said it, and Reno let out an exasperated sigh. “You have _more_ secrets?”

Rude turned his cap over so the brim could be pulled down over his eyes. “Secrets by proxy,” he muttered.

“Ifrit’s asshole, can you believe this,” Reno said to no one in particular as they approached the gym. Its doors were wide open, and inside a tinny radio played bland nu-metal. Men were cheering each other on and the stink of stale sweat hit Reno in the face.

It wasn’t a huge gym, but there was an elevated boxing ring and various weight equipment spread about. There were a few women working out, but it was mostly very large and very moist men in singlets. Reno sucked at his teeth. “Secrets by proxy, huh?”

“Rudy-boy, is that you?” a voice called from behind the ring, and Reno turned to see a man with _very_ big hair approaching them.

“Jules,” Rude said, trying not to stutter, even though he was not able to make eye contact. Not that anyone could see that, with the broad shades hiding his face.

 _Jules_ , whoever that was, approached Rude with an extended hand. Rude took it and they exchanged an elaborate handshake before Jules pulled him in for a hug. They were of similar stature, though Jules was much paler and with much more ridiculous hair. He also had the kind of back muscles that made it look like he spent all day doing pull-ups.

“Big brother,” Jules said with a grin. “Finally quit the biz to enjoy the ritzy squalor of Wall Market again?”

“No,” Reno said, glancing between the two of them with a hysterical chuckle. “No, no. No _way_. Not _again_ , Rude.”

“Jules, my partner, Reno,” Rude said, gesturing at the wild-looking redhead. “Reno, this is my little brother, Jules. No actual relation, but.”

“No _actual relation_ ,” Reno said in disbelief, looking between the two of them. “Between you and your _little brother_. Wait, are you not even really related to Andrea, either?”

“You went and visited Andrea _before me_?” Jules asked, aghast in a way that was completely put on. He’d stepped back to take a long, hard look at Reno. “Partner, huh?”

“Andrea’s my half brother,” Rude said, rubbing at the back of his head under the strap of his hat. “And Jules is Andrea’s half brother. No halves I have in common.” He shrugged with embarrassment. “But we all spent a lot of time in Junon and here in the slums together.”

“Is Aerith _actually your sister_?” Reno hissed, now slapping Rude on the arm with much less harmlessness than he had earlier. “Do you have a secret set of twin children? God children? Second and third cousins who you consider close enough to be siblings?”

“Boy, has he had a long day?” Jules asked, his eyebrows slowly drawing up in a way that Reno didn’t like.

Rude sighed. “Look, we just wanted to stop in and ask if you’ve seen this young woman, Hildegarde. Then we’ll get out of your hair.”

“Tangled-ass bird’s nest,” Reno muttered.

Jules chose not to respond to that, only looking thoughtful. “Hildegarde? I’m not sure. We have Hilde the Hellhound training here, do you think she’s the same one?” Jules gestured over his shoulder with a thumb, and there, destroying a punching bag, was a young woman. She was tall, taller than Reno, and in a tight white jumpsuit with red wrappings on her hands and feet. Her dark hair was drawn back in a French braid.

She was _shredded_ , muscles twitching and stretching with every punch and kick.

“No way,” Reno bleated. “That’s the corporate head’s little lost daughter?” Rude just grunted in mild confusion.

“Hilde!” Jules called. She hit the bag with one last sharp jab, the sound crisp enough to cause Reno to shiver. She turned around and confirmed that yes, that was the face from the photo they’d been given. Her eyes darted back and forth between the two strangers, suspicion coloring her brow.

“Friends of yours, Jules?” she asked as she approached.

“The best, Hilde,” Jules insisted. Rude sighed. If he’d have just come here first, then maybe he’d still have a damn beard. Maybe they’d be back in their apartments and he never would have had to have Aerith see him in a damn _hoodie_. He never quite gave Jules the credit he deserved.

“We’d just heard about you at the colosseum,” Rude said with a casual shrug. “We’re challenging tonight.”

“Together, huh?” she asked, visibly relaxing after Jules’ commendation. “I mean, I guess if you need the backup.”

Reno stepped up to challenge that line of thinking, but Rude simply elbowed the slim figure next to him. “Yeah, well, we don’t have anything on you, it sounds like. You’re famous around here.”

Reno lifted an eyebrow at that but stayed silent. Instead, he folded his arms, attempting to puff up into looking more intimidating. It was a lot harder in a bandanna than he was used to.

“Yeah, everybody loves an underdog,” Hilde said with a smug little shrug. “You ever fought before?”

Rude was the one to stifle a smirk. “I’ve thrown a punch or two,” he said.

“Well, I look forward to watching you fight,” Hilde said with an easy smile. “Maybe I’ll even get to give you both a beat down.”

Reno tsked. “I’d like to see ya try.”

“Ooh, me-yow,” Hilde replied, which got Reno sputtering. “Fat chance, I’m not on the docket tonight. But I like to watch up with Madame M when I’m not pummeling.”

Rude gave a curt nod, a funny-looking gesture in the aviators and hat. “Til later, then, Miss Hellhound.”

She laughed shortly at him. “Boy, I hope I get that chance,” she said, and then turned back to her punching bag.

Jules spread his hands. “Anything else I can do for you, boys?”

“No,” Reno said before Rude had a chance to say anything else. He walked past Jules, grabbing Rude by the wrist. “Now come buy me a damn plate of meat before I wither away.”

Jules’ expression softened. “It was good to see you again, Rude. And your partner.” He winked. “I don’t see a ring—”

“GOOD-BYE,” Rude said too loudly, forcefully pushing Reno out of the gym to feed him.

* * *

Reno was in a _much_ better mood after carbo-loading on a tall stack of noodles and barbecued meat. The two of them strode into the Corneo Colosseum with a bit of pep in their step. They knew where to _find_ their target. They just needed to do a night of fights for Andrea’s sake, then they could grab her and get the hell out of the slums for the foreseeable future.

Though Rude had a sneaking suspicion Reno would find any reason he could to drag them back to the Honeybee Inn.

The unpleasant doorman who had sent them away smiled grandly at them this time, gesturing with wide hands. “Ah! You must be Team R&R. Andrea stopped by this morning to tell me about you! Right this way!”

Reno glanced at Rude with a lifted eyebrow, and Rude just shrugged. Reno was also pleasantly surprised the man didn’t seem to connect the dots between “tall bald man and angry red-haired companion in suits” and “two badly dressed fighters with similar height disparity”.

The doorman stepped aside and opened the gaudy red doors to the elevator. The two stepped into it; when the doors shut, Reno let out a noisy sigh. “Team R&R? What the hell is that about?”

“Who knows,” Rude said, flexing his hands as he stared at them. He should have at least taped them. The ring with his dodge materia was looking more ridiculous now; what if he just cracked the whole damn thing? “Andrea thinking he’s cute, or something. At least now you’ll know.” Rude tugged his sunglasses down to look at Reno with solemn eyes. “He’s not.”

“Don’t be jealous of your fabulous brother,” Reno snorted, pretending the sight of Rude’s eyes after a long day of not seeing them didn’t make the hair stand up on the back of his neck. “Half brother. Was wondering why he was ah, significantly less tan.”

Rude rolled his eyes and tugged the sunglasses back up. The doors opened, and they shuffled out into a very undecorated alleyway. Several small doors lined the hallway, some half-open, and at the end was a man in front of a very large rising door in a very stupid hat and open vest. His sunglasses, though, were spot-on for what Rude had on.

“What’s with all the cowboy hats down here?” Reno muttered. They strolled up to the man who regarded them like he’d regard an annoying teenager. Reno’s eyebrow twitched. “Uh, excuse us?”

The man shrugged. “Name?”

“Rude,” Rude said, and then watched the guy’s expression change. He sighed. “Rude and Rian. Uh, Team R&R.”

“ _Oh_ ,” he replied, touching his forehead. “Sorry, don’t know first timers too well. You’ll be up soon. There’s a resting area in that side room.” He gestured. “You’ll get to show your stuff against some wild beasties first, so be sure you’re up for it!”

Reno managed not to roll his eyes as they made their way into the rest area. He almost glued himself to the vending machine, pulling out some two gil coins. “Hey, want a Black Thundaga bar? Or Cola Muchao? Whoa, they sell mini music discs? But like, why, yo?”

“Reno, stop wasting your money. Unless you cram that chocolate in your mouth, where are you gonna put it?”

“What, as if I don’t have pockets?” Reno scoffed and then reached down to his hips. The borrowed pants _definitely_ didn’t have pockets. “The hell?”

“Wearing women’s jeans all day and you didn’t even notice,” Rude teased. “Sit down with me.”

Reno huffed, throwing himself onto the bench next to Rude. He rested his head on his shoulder, taking in a deep breath. These benches _were_ pretty damn comfortable. He almost felt himself drifting when the door slammed open and three men lumbered in. The stink of booze and rotting body odor rolled in with them.

“Who the hell are you two?” the front man asked, most of his face covered by a bandana with very stupid eyeholes ripped into it. Reno suddenly hated that he was wearing one. 

“None of your business, ugly,” Reno said.

“Hey! Who are you callin’ ugly, ya freaky delinquent?” the man howled.

“Yeah, ya stupid deli squint,” one replied, the only not-bald one, though his fried hair was pulled back in a way that implied if he _had_ been bald, it would have been a much better choice.

The front man turned to his shorter companion. “Delinquent, ya moron, can’t you hear?”

“Uhhh. Can’t I hear what?”

Rude stared at the three of them in mild disbelief. “They’re as stupid as they are ugly,” he mumbled, and Reno bit his lip hard to stop from laughing.

The three seemed to bicker with each other, ignoring the pair on the bench, as they threw themselves at the nearby picnic table. The stupidest one shook the vending machine in hopes of free candy. There was none.

“So uh, you guys fight often?” Rude asked, and Reno nearly elbowed him in the side. _Why are you talking to them,_ he mouthed.

“As often as they’ll let us!” the frontman said. “Assuming Butch and Burke here have their heads on straight.”

Rude pursed his lips. “You ever fight Hilde the Hellhound?”

“Have we ever!” the one with the horrible pony tail shouted. “She’s knocked more teeth outta my face than, uh… Um.”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever. She’ll pay for her hubris, anyway!” the leader said. “We almost got her to Corneo the first time we saw her!”

“Yeah, she’ll pay for her huge lips!”

“Butch, we’ve _talked about this_ ,” the leader hissed.

Reno was struggling not to laugh until he threw up. He just covered his face with both hands. Rude was handling himself much better. “Why take her to Corneo?” he asked.

“The Don’s had his eye on her since she first showed up. You know he likes ‘em with a little fight in ‘em!” the leader said. “It doesn’t even matter. Now he doesn’t need us to bring her in.”

Rude cracked his neck to the side. “Why not?”

“Cause he’s gonna get her under contract! Marry me or no more fightin’! And no more fightin’ is just gonna put her in big time danger. She’s made a lot of enemies, what with all the tooth-loosening.”

Rude nearly opened his mouth to ask more, when an out-of-place tone rang throughout the room and outside hallway. “Team R&R, you are on deck for your first battle.”

Reno was up like a shot, grabbing Rude’s wrist. “Fascinating conversation, boys, but we’ve _really_ gotta fly. Bye-eeeee.”

“Was that lady talking to us?” Butch asked, and the leader slapped him across the back of his head with a “Shaddup, Butch.”

“Promise me, Rude,” Reno said as they strolled back to the man with god-awful fashion sense.

“What, partner?”

“If I ever get knocked around so hard I sound that stupid? You’ll just put me out of my misery.”

Rude’s mouth tipped up in one corner. “Sure. I’ll just come up behind you. One quick twist. No pain, no stress.”

“You’ve thought about it?” Reno asked, aghast.

“Nah. But I know how you’d like to go out.”

“Bullshit!” Reno laughed. “You know I want to go out coming so hard I get an aneurism—”

“I refuse to fuck someone that stupid, Reno.”

The man at the door was smiling at them now. “Good luck, newbies!” he said, and gestured past himself to the awaiting stage doors.

Reno could hear the rumble of the audience as they passed through the doors; it exploded into a roar of bright lights and the sound of two particularly irritating voices as they walked out into the garish red arena.

“Our newest competitors sound pretty laid back: It’s Team Rest and Relaxation, the Odd Couple!”

“A couple… of guys!”

“These softies should have spent more time drinking cocktails with their feet up before they meet their bitter end! These honeymooners are about to get spit roasted like tropical pork by our ferocious champion of chomp, the Beastmaster! Or could they actually succeed against our very own Sanguine Stalkers!?”

“Fat chance! These chum-chugging suckers are gonna be dog food!”

“Only time will tell!”

The two announcers, both with sunglasses so cheap they made Reno mad for Rude’s sake, passed by them. The dark-haired one smirked at Rude, muttering, “Go get ‘em, Rudy.”

“Un-fucking-believable,” Reno sighed.

“I told you,” Rude said as the opposite door opened and the announcers disappeared out of the arena. “I was a popular young man.”

Two hounds and their eyepatch-wearing owner stepped out, and Reno sighed as he slid into a more comfortable fighting position. “We never tell Rufus about this, right?”

“Right,” Rude said.

“Fetch!” the Beastmaster yelled, and the dogs launched forward at the pair.

“Sorry, boy,” Rude muttered, and slammed his heavy boot down on the dog’s head. It was knocked into a stagger almost immediately.

Reno, on the other hand, chose to run. He sprinted, letting the dog chase him, as the announcers went wild: “Oh! Team R&R is definitely the odd couple! Our big boy knocked that puppy out in one, but his little friend is running for his life! How can a man run in heels that high?”

“How can a man run from a dog, period! Is he even a man!”

Reno was gonna find those announcers after this was all over, and he was going to fry their _goddamn balls off_. He stopped short as the hound lunged; he stepped to the side and brought down a sharp crack of lightning, the hound spasming in surprise.

Both animals staggered, the pair focused in on the Beastmaster, who stared at them in slow-dawning horror. They watched his feet spread as he readied himself, and the two dashed at him. Reno simply seemed to vanish as Rude’s fist connected easily with the Beastmaster’s jaw; Reno reappeared behind him to kick his knees out from under him.

The Beastmaster fell forward, attempting to use his whip to attack them, but Rude already had his arms around the Beastmaster’s waist.

“What’s this?” the announcers called. “Does Team R&R stand for Roast and Wrestle!?”

“I fuckin’ _hate that guy_ ,” Reno hissed, eyes focusing in on the two dogs that seemed to come out of stagger as Rude lifted the unlucky Beastmaster up and over his shoulders. Rude just grunted as he threw the other man to the ground in a spine-bending suplex, knocking the wind out of him even as Rude rolled to the side.

“Dogs!” Reno called, and jumped up to punch the wobbling, angered hellhounds as they galloped back towards them.

One dog leapt onto Rude’s prone body, but Rude had roughhoused with Darkstar enough to know never to touch that back tentacle unless one meant business.

And Rude was _all_ business.

His fingers grabbed hard around the dog’s whip, swinging himself up as he held tight to it for leverage. The dog slipped, and Rude then began to spin the dog around faster and faster.

“My god, man! Ravage and Ruin! We can’t believe it! Those dogs have a family!”

Rude let go, the animal flailing in the air as it was sent across the arena to land in an exhausted heap.

Reno, meanwhile, had his boot on the other dog’s neck. It whimpered under him. “Did we win?” he pouted. “I didn’t wanna fight dogs.”

“Team Rest and Relaxation VANQUISHED the Beastmaster!” the dark-haired announcer screamed, and the audience blew up in excited whistles and shouts. “I wouldn’t want to go on holiday with _these_ two shredders!”

“We’ll see how far they can get against a bigger group of foes! Team R&R takes one win!”

“C’mon,” Rude muttered, turning back towards the door they’d entered through. “We still have three more after this.”

Reno whined, throwing his hands behind his head. “I miss my magrod. If I have to fight another dog…”

Rude glanced behind him as staffers from the colosseum rushed out to cure the three they’d left on the ground. “They’ll be fine,” he chuckled, cracking his knuckles. “I kinda liked it.”

They passed the doorman, ignoring him as they headed back to the rest bench. The three foul-smelling idiots were no longer there. Good. “You always do get a little bloodlusty with a good fight,” Reno hummed. “Think we have enough time for a quickie?”

“Shiva's tits, you’re incorrigible,” Rude snorted. Maybe, he thought as he rested back on the bench, this wouldn’t be so bad. Reno threw himself into Rude’s lap.

“At least make out with me,” Reno said, though on his attempt the brim of the hat stopped him. “Aw.”

“Reno,” Rude said with a small smirk, and pushed the man off of his lap back onto the bench. “Channel your terrifying horny energy into punches for me. Just this once.”

Reno huffed, folding his arms. He still had a sly grin on his face. “Just this once,” he agreed, and together, they waited for the next bell.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is utterly unbetaed but I can't look at it any more
> 
> THREE ACTION SCENES IN A ROW? JESUS CHRIST WHY DO I DO THIS TO MYSELF
> 
> Find me on Twitter @[MantaWords](https://twitter.com/MantaWords) for snippets and thirst tweets apparently
> 
> OH ALSO SIDENOTE. HUGE, IMMENSE, PILES OF LOVE for Cryogenia!!!! Jesus Christ you are a godsend and soul-saver who helped me get through this agony and made it so good. CHEERLEADER KING, THANK YOU

“This twisted twosome took out our Beastmaster’s hounds with the efficiency of killers! Now they’re back and our bandit boys are out for blood.”

“Beck and his Bandits know a thing or two about wrestlin’!”

“And these two look like well-seasoned oil wrestlers, if you know what I mean!”

The audience burst into a laughing ‘wooo!’ Reno pounded his fist against his palm. “Okay,” he growled. “Now I’m mad.”

Across from them, the huge door slid open to reveal the three _idiots_ from before, only there were a dozen more behind them, all swinging a variety of cheap and bloody weapons.

They two of them looked at each other and didn’t have to say a word to know they were both exasperated and amused. Reno fell into an easy shuffle, leading with his left; Rude stood beside him, angled almost back to back, leading with his right.

The bandits didn’t seem as interested in making petty back-chat, so Rude moved in to wrangle a section of the large hockey mask wearing boys. Reno split off to the side as a line of dumpy baseball bat wielding bandits jogged at him.

It had been a while since he’d fought without his rod in public, but he stayed up on sparring with the team. Now he could really _practice_ without holding anything back. The first bandits got a sharp elbow jab to the face, and the second Reno punched swiftly in the gut. The bandit grunted, dropping the nail bat in surprise, so Reno kicked him sharply in the chest, sending him flying backwards.

“Now we’re talkin,” Reno hummed as he picked up the bat, pointing at the next in line and swinging for their skull. “Heads up!”

Rude had meanwhile gotten up into the face of one lumbering moron, landing a disorienting number of punches on his face and chest. Another enormous bandit had come up from behind him, restraining him in a bear hug from behind. Rude kicked his heavy heel up behind him, not quite smashing the guy in the crotch, but enough to get the bandit to squeeze his legs together in a bid for protection. Rude’s leg came back down hard on the ground, spread behind the bandit’s closed legs, twisting out of his grip as he tripped him from behind. The bandit fell to the ground as Rude rolled to the side, shaking his head.

Couldn’t get distracted like that again with the two enormous men, he thought, though hearing Reno say ‘heads up!’ before a sickening wet thunk let him know someone may have lost a head. Rude didn’t even spare him a backwards glance, though, a little more irritated with the hulking idiots. He clenched his fists, letting that fire materia start to crackle. He always slotted the elemental with it, and he had been getting very good at not letting it burn him as flames rolled enticingly over his knuckles.

Rude didn’t even use his fists for the first guy, jumping into a spinning kick to knock his head to a disturbingly unnatural angle. He dropped quickly, and the second lumbering bandit was too slow to notice the fiery punches that knocked him down and out.

Reno had found his swing, literally, as he used the bat to knock down his foes with about half his usual EMR-based grace. The damn bat was huge and heavy, causing him to lurch heavily to each side as he moved, but it was easier to crack bones with this than his rod, so he was willing to sacrifice some grace for a little extra fun.

He was almost worried when a guy with a machete ran at him, screaming, but he sidestepped quickly enough and brought the bat down in a bunt, effectively destroying machete man’s knees.

Rude was working his way through the stragglers, the flames gone out now to just focus on an assault of kicks. The glitzy boots got an arena-wide “Wooooo!” every time they made contact with someone’s head, so he’d been aiming for teeth.

Finally, in the middle, was Beck, Butch and Burke, the three original thugs from the waiting area. Rude and Reno met back at the center, Rude unable to hide the smirk at the sight of Reno spattered in blood and swinging a cracked bat like a baton.

“You’re in for it, now!” Beck shouted, and the three charged forward. Rude took the short one with the terrible hair, slamming his knee into that god awful bandana mask, and then forcing an elbow down onto his spine. He went down. Reno took the tallest, swinging the bat at his stomach and, with unnecessary flashiness, flipped forward, his ankles catching the man’s neck and kicking him down into the dirt.

Beck stood in the middle, glancing back and forth between the two who were giving off enough aggressive energy to make a normal, intelligent man worry for himself. But Beck knew he was very important people, what with his entertainment contracts, so he held firm to his own baseball bat and swung wildly.

Reno and Rude met each other’s eyes, shrugging, having a perfectly silent conversation until Reno was the victor. He stepped forward, holding up the nailbat. “You! Let’s fight like men! No weapons, just fists, yeah?”

The crowd exploded with applause, and Beck was very responsive to that. He tossed the bat aside without another word, and Rude half expected Reno to just slam him in the face with the bat, but to his surprise, Reno tossed his stolen weapon aside.

Rude carefully took a step back to watch as Reno circled his opponent. It was asinine, since he knew the other man could kill this dumb bandit with two fingers alone, but Reno was eating up the attention. Now that his focus had lessened, he could hear the booming voices of the announcers he’d been ignoring before:

“Team Rock and Roll has decided who gets the final boss! Look at him go, circling his prey!”

“Circling his date after this fight, you mean!”

Rude hummed. He would definitely be looking for that second announcer later. His eyes narrowed in as Beck the Bandit dove at Reno, tired of waiting, and Reno simply pulled back his wiry arm and slammed his well-trained fist into the bandit’s face. Beck swayed, but surprisingly he did not fall over. His own hands came out with angry punches, but Reno kept shifting from side to side, toying with a rapidly more irritated bandit.

“Hold still!” Beck was yelling, and Reno just laughed, stopping quickly enough to jab his fists at the other’s gut. Still Beck did not fall, and he was able to get his arms around Reno’s shoulders. The arena was in an uproar, and Rude watched with narrowed eyes as the two tussled to the ground. Reno let the other man get on top of him. Rude smirked, watching Reno’s legs immediately twist, swinging all his energy so that he could throw the other man off of him with ease. Their positions switched, Reno smashed his fists over and over into the bandit until blood was soaking the bandana.

Reno stood up triumphant, a little sweaty, and put one red boot on the bandit’s chest. “That’s for callin’ me freaky, you little shit,” Reno spat.

Rude walked up to him with a shake of his head, grabbing Reno’s bloody left hand and lifted into the air. “You’ll hurt yourself,” he said with a very small grin, listening to the audience cheer for them.

“It’s time this duo earned Rest and Relaxation after that brutal bashing! The Bandits stood no chance!”

“The one in the boots looks good in blood!”

Reno gazed up at Rude with a knowing smirk, yanking his hand down with enough force that Rude had to bend down. Reno kissed him, for all of god and man to see, and the shouts split into more screaming ‘wooo!’s.

Rude pulled back, though he’d managed to tune out everything other than Reno in front of him, his pupils small and excited in beautiful turquoise. He was on the edge of manic, an excitable, adrenaline-filled Reno, and Rude had never been more mad about getting cock blocked by his brother than he was at that moment. “C’mon,” he breathed, pulling the man back out of the arena. If they didn’t have to do more fights, they could have just left, but _no_ , he had to make up for _allowing them the privilege_ of fighting in this damn slums fight club.

Once they passed Badly Dressed Cowboy, Reno was the one to yank on Rude’s wrist. The waiting room was still empty, so Reno had no qualms with jumping into Rude’s arms.

Rude grunted, his arms coming up automatically to catch the lithe redhead. “Really?” he grumbled as Reno kissed him, awkwardly maneuvering their bodies to the rest bench. He had to admit that sitting there with Reno grinding down on him did seem to be improving his health and stamina, but maybe that was just the bench?

Reno pulled back, breathing a little heavy, staring at him through long lashes. He bit his own lip, and Rude groaned. Nope. It was definitely not the bench.

The bell dinged. “Team R&R, your next match is about to begin!”

This time it was Rude hissing, “Are you fucking kidding me?”

Reno laughed, pushing Rude’s hat up so he could press their foreheads together. “What if we just ran away now? Nobody would notice, right?”

“That’d just mean we’d really have to never come back to Wall Market. And also fail the mission. So.” Get off me, Rude didn’t say. He’d definitely meant to.

“We’ve never failed before, so failing once isn’t that big of a deal, right?” Reno reasoned, smirking against Rude’s lips.

The tip of Rude’s tongue flicked against Reno’s open mouth. He was at the point of really considering it when the bell dinged again. “Team R&R! Your next match is ready! Please come to the arena!”

Rude sighed, head falling back. “Get off me.”

Reno did, and the two tried to calm themselves down (Reno’s juvenile _sac tap technique_ worked well, even if Rude hated him for it) before going out to meet their next battle.

“Looks like Team Rest & Relaxation took it a little too seriously! They’re looking seriously exhausted!”

“Maybe a little gunfire will put some pep in their step!”

“That’s right folks, this fight is sponsored by Shinra Inc! Enjoy a fizzy Makola as we watch Team R&R fight a legion of Shinra soldiers!”

“We got SOLDIERs!?”

“No, Kotch, we have the next best thing! Lackeys! Ten-hut!”

Reno and Rude stared in horror at several Shinra security officers and a boat load of faceless troopers stood in front of them, nervously shifting back and forth. “Rude, did we actually die? Are we in some realm of Ifrit’s nine hells?”

“We won’t tell Rufus about the dogs, and we won’t tell him about this, either,” Rude said with a shrug. At least seeing a bunch of potentially familiar Shinra lackeys had _completely_ killed the desire that Reno had brought out in him earlier.

The closer they got, the more nervous whispering they could hear from the security officers: “That guy’s covered in blood.” “That guy’s _huge_.” “Wait, are those the Turk’s tattoos?” “Is that—” “Oh.” “ _Oh shit_.”

It was not an amused ‘oh shit’. Rude sighed. “KOs only. We’re not making more paperwork for Tseng.”

Reno let out an annoyed puff of air. “Whatever, it’s not like I have the bat anymore.”

Not all the lackeys recognized them, which was a welcome relief. Though both Turks knew if one lackey mentioned this back at HQ, everyone at HQ would be hearing about it eventually. That was just a risk they were going to have to take.

They split up, running in opposite directions around the group. Bullets sprayed outward in a flurry of poorly aimed barrels, and this time Reno focused on his more acrobatic martial arts. Unfortunately, his sweeping kicks and punches weren’t as effective against men in actual body armor, and he growled, resorting to a line of chain lightning from his thunder materia, the arc burning uncomfortably out of his hands. He really missed his rod.

The lightning was enough for some, but the others were piling on top of Rude. Reno had watched Shinra officers jump on Rude before, in training drills where they always got their asses handed to them, but it was more entertaining now as Rude was _rearing_ to bust some heads, and yet was being forced to restrain himself. He had even caught Rude grimacing when he grabbed an officer by the ankles and swung him into two others.

Rude was enjoying himself and hating himself for it. Reno couldn’t help but find it distractingly hilarious.

The distraction was what he would blame on getting knocked straight in the face by a shock trooper and ricocheting off of a riot trooper’s shield. He was bashed in the chest, getting knocked to the ground. The wind had been knocked out of him and he struggled to take in a breath, much less make a sound. 

The constant static that filtered into Rude’s ears seemed to fade as he heard the announcers shout, “Ohh! The little half of Team Reckless & Randy just got fed a taste of his own medicine!”

“That riot trooper said, lemme smash!”

Rude’s head whipped around to see Reno’s body rolling on the ground as a shock trooper descended on him, and something ticked at the back of his mind. The static that had been filling his mind faded, but no sound filled in. His mind became a vacuum, white hot with rage. A flame trooper shot a cone of fire at him from the flamethrower, singeing Rude’s hoodie, and the fury exploded in him. He yanked the remains of the hoodie up and over his head, throwing it at the surprised trooper, and then jumped straight after the hoodie, both feet landing with such force on the other’s torso he could hear the bones crunch. When the second flame trooper ascended on him, he almost absent-mindedly punched him in the back with enough force to do a thing he had _not_ meant to do.

Rude didn’t even see the flame trooper’s propane backpack explode in fiery mayhem as he turned towards his partner. He could only see the men swooping down on Reno. He heard grenadiers near the edge of the arena shoot explosives, and he knew he had to work his way through them all.

His speed was scary: long legs taking very few steps to move halfway across the arena to knock out the grenadiers with sharp kicks from his knees to their chests and heads. Their grenade launchers fell from limp hands. Rude had already taken care of both flame troopers and the low level security officers; now it was the punks with the riot shields and the uncomfortably dressed shock troopers.

Reno was pushing himself up, but the shock troopers kept him down. Reno let out a furious yell; being on the wrong end of electrocution was filling him with incoherent rage. He managed, finally, to roll out of the way of another kick, spinning himself up onto his knees and then hopping to wobbly feet. He could see Rude’s heel go straight into the air and then come down on the back of a riot trooper, who fell so flat so quickly, he wasn’t sure if that guy was going home at all. Reno couldn’t focus on the other man, that had what caused him his troubles in the first place.

He stared at the shock trooper who gazed back at him, expressionless behind the terrifying helmet. Reno spat blood in the dirt. “Okay, fuckface,” he slurred. “You’re gonna be sorry you tried to take that shit out on me.”

Reno had been saving his MP for the more important elemental spells, but he needed the help. He felt Haste bleed into his hands and legs and heart, and as the shock trooper descended on him, he vanished from the trooper’s periphery.

The trooper paused, turning slightly in confusion a little too late. Reno was behind him, locking his neck in a headlock and bending him backwards. Reno was flexible, locking his feet around the shock troopers ankles as he nearly bent himself in half, both his arms tight around the thinly clad neck. The trooper’s arms flailed backwards, fists slamming into Reno’s side and ribs, but he only tightened his grip, grinding his teeth as he choked harder.

Rude stacked the four riot trooper bodies on one another, the final shock trooper dashing away from him at every turn, but Rude was out for revenge. He cut off the trooper’s next dash, picking him up by the waist and slamming him down onto Rude’s outstretched knee. As the trooper rolled motionless on the ground, Rude looked up to see Reno rolling out from under the last unconscious trooper, the chokehold having finally taken purchase. Rude was on him a moment later, hand moving over Reno’s bloody face.

“You good?” he huffed, deep voice tinged with angry tension.

“Enough,” Reno replied, spitting again as he gestured at the surrounding bodies. He grinned, one hand wrapping around Rude’s bare, veined bicep. “What happened to your sweatshirt?”

Rude just grunted.

“Somebody call an ambulance! We gotta get these Shinra boys a whole chicken of phoenix feathers!”

“Oh, what’s that? I think I hear the ambulance now!”

“You’re right! Here it comes!”

The arena’s opposite end doors opened and Rude and Reno looked up to see four hovering rays and a rumbling Sweeper clatter in past the doorway. Reno’s legs wobbled. “Are you for real?”

Rude’s hand slid around to the back of Reno’s neck, squeezing lightly as he cast Cure. Reno coughed, feeling minor wounds closing up and a bit more energy seep into his body. Rude let go of him, swaying to the side. “I’ll handle the distraction. You know how to take these stupid things down.”

“Ifrit’s asshole, I wish I had my rod,” Reno whined, and then shook his head, knocking any rust loose. The sentry and slug-rays spread out in a fan, and Reno dashed for them while the sweeper accelerated towards Rude.

Reno clutched his left fingers tightly, concentrating as hard as he could as he crashed his clenched fist into a slug-ray with an Electroburst. The slug-ray peeled out of the air and landed in a perfect arc to smash into the second slug. The sentry rays focused in on him, laser precision landing on him.

“Shit, shit,” he hissed, skidding along the ground to avoid a sudden rush of gunfire from them. They were too hefty to just punch to the ground, so he focused another Thundara out. This time when the crack of lightning hit the ground, it enveloped both sentries. Reno let out an exhausted laugh and then turned to watch as Rude was practically somersaulting away from the Sweeper.

“Rude!” he shouted, swearing as he watched the Sweeper settle back to launch shrapnel and fire at the other man. He landed in a heavy stance, focusing hard. He’d already used so much damn magic, but a Sweeper was no joke without their usual weapons. The prickle of third-level magic caused the hair on his arms to stand on end as an enormous thunderbolt pierced through the Sweeper.

Rude had jumped out of the way just in time to see the lightning shear off chunks of metal from the Sweeper, but still it turned, zeroing in on him. Rude was dusty and bloody, the lack of hoodie showing the strain on bulging muscles much more clearly. “Switch!” he yelled, making eye contact with Reno across the arena. Reno gave one sharp nod and took off, trading places with Rude to attempt to get the Sweeper’s attention.

The Sweeper caught the new heat signature and turned towards Reno, who let out a long exhale. The chase began; he was running too fast to be able to cast anything, constantly getting out of the way of bullets spraying to and fro. Finally, the damn thing settled back to start spewing flames in the air and Rude smashed his fists and feet into the back of it, an abrupt shower of violence that had the thing’s bolts falling loose.

It gave a mighty squeal, its legs crumpling in at the knee and then crashing to the ground in defeat. Rude fell to his knees soon after, huffing out an exhausted breath as the adrenaline coursed through him.

They looked at each other across the arena with tired, but pleased expressions: Reno’s a massive grin, Rude’s just a soft sloping of his eyebrows and a minimal tilt to his lips. Reno was the one to cross the stadium to Rude, reaching down with a hand to pull him up. Rude stood easily, this time letting the spread palm of his hand press against the center of Reno’s back, and bent him back as he kissed him, like a soldier back from war.

The stadium’s cheers nearly drowned out the announcers: “I don’t know about you, but I wasn’t sure they could do it! Near the end they were Team Rundown and Rusty!”

“More like Romance and Racy. Shiva’s tits, get a room, you two!”

Rude tipped his partner back up, and they were both exhausted, but Reno’s blush seemed to revitalize himself a bit more. “Okay?” he murmured.

“Alright,” Reno replied, pulling away so they could walk none-too-gracefully back out their exit.

“What a fight, am I right? It seems our dynamic power couple has caught the attention of our very own Don Corneo! We may have something very special in store!”

“Hope one of those Rs on Team R&R stands for R-Elixir!”

This time, when the two made it back to the waiting room bench, they sat, eyes shut, exhausted. “I’m tired, Rude.”

“Me too.”

“Let’s leave.”

“Can you move?”

“No.”

“You see the problem.”

Reno let out a shaky laugh that grew more hysterical until he had to cover his face. “How ‘bout one more Cura for the road?”

Rude reached for Reno’s baggy tank top, fisting the material as he pulled the man in for a long, slow kiss. Reno’s eyes fluttered shut, his entire body shuddering at the feeling of Cura settling through both of them while Rude stroked his tongue along Reno’s lips. This close the healing magic left an almost unpleasant tingling sensation, causing goosebumps to travel up and down both their arms.

When they pulled apart, Reno’s eyes were heavy with desire. “You gotta do that again. Later.”

Rude just gave him a lopsided grin, pushing Reno back into the bench. “Perfect motivation,” he hummed.

They were too exhausted for funny business after that, but there was a much longer delay between this fight and the previous ones. Reno let his head fall on Rude’s shoulder and was snoring softly by the time the bell rang throughout the waiting room and alley.

“Team R&R! Your final fight is ready! Come show us what you’re made of!”

Reno jerked up with a startled snort, rubbing his hands over his eyes. “Do we hafta?”

Rude stood up with no complaint, having to put on a strong face for his partner. He just tipped his head, sticking a hand down. Reno sighed, grabbing it and pulling himself up. “Yeah, yeah. We hafta. I get it.”

The walk down the alley was full of the dulled thunder of applause, and that itself was an energy boost. The two touched fists with a grin as they passed Terrible Cowboy Hat, and the noise of the arena filled their ears. There was no one standing there yet other than the two of them.

A spotlike slammed down onto the pair, and a hush moved over the crowd. “Ladies and gentlemen!” the less crass announcer began. “We’ve never seen a pair of new fighters skyrocket so quickly to the top! The Don wants to see just how could they could be!”

“Think of the fame! The notoriety! The ladies these two _obviously_ don’t want!”

“For that, the illustrious Don has found something very exciting and challenging for everyone here!”

“More exciting than the Jury Rigged Cutter? Than the Hedgehog King!?”

“That’s right! You’ve seen them shock and burn foes on the ground, but how do they handle our next competitor? Ladies and gentleman, please keep your hands and legs close! It’s time for the Rust Drake!”

The lights flooded the arena followed by a noisy jingle of chains and a furious shriek. Falling from the center of the ceiling was an enormous drake, one neither Rude nor Reno had seen before, and as it stretched out its wings, the chains holding it in place fell to the ground with a screaming _thunk_.

“You don’t have Wind, do you,” Reno whispered.

“Nope,” Rude replied, eyes growing wide behind the sunglasses. “I have a bad— _whoa!_ ” He didn’t get the chance to make a snide remark as the drake dove down, snatching Rude by the arms in its sharp talons and then throwing him back into the dirt.

Reno skittered backwards, his brain yelling at him to _move! Do something!_ But all he could think was, _How the fuck do we reach the damn thing?_

“Rude!” he howled. “All we can do is crush him with magic, right?”

Rude scrambled to his feet, shaking his head to clear it. His hat had been knocked off. God forbid he lost any more damn clothes. Reno’s suggestion seemed like the only option. Rude had a good jump height, but what could he do, besides grab the thing’s tail and wail away at its sensitive parts? …Well, actually—

Reno spent so long attempting to cast Thundaga that the lightning bolt missed completely, and the Rust Drake shrieked again. It spewed fire in Reno’s direction, and the man yelped as he rolled to the side. He met up with Rude back in the center of the arena, the two of them staring up as the drake seemed to encapsulate in darkness. “Okay, besides not missing with magic, what else we got?” Reno panted.

“You’re not gonna like it,” Rude said, gritting his teeth.

“You’re not gonna throw me into it, are you?”

Rude looked at him like he was stupid. “And risk your life? No way.”

Reno couldn’t ask what he’d meant, then, as he watched that stupid Turk leap straight up into the air to grab onto the drake’s tail and held on for dear life. His mouth fell open.

“Ohh! Big Baldy from Team R&R has taken matters into his own hands!”

“And legs!”

Reno knew his only option was to activate Haste and try and focus the magic faster, but when he attempted to, he felt nothing. He growled in frustration, but even then, no sound came out. He gawked, yelling, and still, nothing.

 _Silenced_.

His mouth formed the word ‘Rude!’ when he realized in horror that he couldn’t even help with magic, watching as Rude squirmed his way up the drake’s writhing wyrm body, attempting to land fiery punches wherever he could. It was a very, very ineffective strategy. Rude was sure it was a good one until the drake dove again, its wings flat out, and zipped around the arena, twisting its entire body to shake off the parasite that was Rude.

Rude flailed as he fell, trying to look where he would land but unable to turn around soon enough. With an uncomfortably quiet crunch, he knew instantly he’d fallen directly on Reno.

Reno’s hands pushed at him and Rude rolled off with a grunt of pain. “Shit, sorry, I didn’t—fuck!” The drake dove past them again, the sharp wind stirred up by its wings hitting Rude harder than he’d like to admit.

Rude struggled to his feet, pulling at Reno; Reno, who was near tears with frustration, mouth moving a mile a minute and no damn _sound_ coming out. Rude stared at him in shock as the drake flew around the arena, stopping at the opposite end to encase itself in darkness once again. Rude’s teeth clenched as he stared up at the announcer’s box: there was Scotch and Kotch, his worried looking brother, that fat Corneo asshole, and a very, very disgruntled Hilde the Hellhound standing in front of whoever her sponsor was.

“Someone silenced you,” Rude said, and Reno slapped him on the back of his bald head: _Duh, asshole!_

“That can’t be part of the game!” Rude shouted, gesturing at his screaming silent partner, too angry at the announcer’s box to notice the drake sweeping in on them again.

This time the darkness came out of the drake in massive orbs, floating ominously towards the pair. They were drawn in like magnets, even as they attempted to pull backwards and away. It was too late, the intense gravity from the orbs pulling them in and imploding. The blast knocked them both back, landing comically against the arena’s walls in all manner of cartoonish positions.

Rude grunted as he slid down to the ground, head first. “We’re toast,” he huffed, the drake moving to snatch one of them out of the ground again. Rude forced himself up, dragging his body in front of Reno’s, pulling his own body into as much of a block stance as he could. He had just enough juice left in him to cast Cura, irritated that they had singled out Reno for the silence, but glad he could at least keep the bruising at bay.

He felt Reno struggle upwards to attempt to push him out of the way, knowing he’d be furious for taking a blow for him, though it never came. The drake had almost attempted to use another wing cutter on them when there was another noise of sharp, jingling chain, and Rude suddenly wondered if there was a _second_ drake being let loose (and if there was, he was even more mad about Reno being silenced since their last living moments were going to be _quiet_ ).

It wasn’t a second drake, though: it was Hilde the Hellhound, leaping out of the announcer’s box with the type of barbarian scream that made the hair stand on Rude’s arms. In her hands was an enormous chain whip with a jagged ball covered in spikes at the end, which she spun around in a beautiful display of dexterity.

“Even I can see this isn’t a fair fight!” she boomed, and the flail whistled as it wrapped around the slim body of the drake. Both the Turks’ mouths fell open as she yanked the monster out of the air, its body hurtling to the ground.

She’d staggered it in one move.

“Ramuh’s wrinkled cock,” Rude uttered in a stupor.

“I can’t _believe it!_ ” the announcer screamed. “The unholy terror, Hilde the Hellhound, has _stepped in_ to save the day!”

“Unprecedented!”

Reno pushed Rude aside in a surprising burst of energy, lunging at the writhing, screaming drake. Reno was bloody and furious, landing punches and kicks on the thing, and Rude found himself in a bit of shock. It took a solid thirty seconds before he joined the two of them; Hilde had yanked her whip free, spinning it around again to disorient the drake before it landed again on its sensitive neck.

Rude had been about to land a heavy kick on it when the drake broke its stagger, sailing up into the air again. This time, Hilde’s whip was still wrapped around its neck, and she sailed in the air as she hung by the strong, heavy chain.

They were struck dumb as they watched her fly, using the momentum to swing herself up onto the damn drake like a fantasy dragon rider. There, legs wrapped tightly around its neck, she slammed hit after heavy hit into the drake’s scaled flesh with wrapped fists. Its movements grew more erratic, flapping faster and harder, until it began to spin like a helicopter going down.

She yanked her whip free, taking a running jump off of its back, flipping, and landing as though she had taken a gentle step down from her front porch.

Reno and Rude pumped their fists in air in victory just as the unconscious, bloodied body of the drake mowed them over, crushing them mercilessly.

The crowd was silent for a short moment, and then boomed into huge applause. “The winner… Hilde the Hellhound!?” the announcer screamed, and the Don, who had been scowling, seemed fine with this outcome as he slunk out of view.

Hilde soaked up the attention with a grin, coiling up her tentacle-like whip with a flourish, before she looked over at the arms and legs sticking out from underneath the very dead Rust Drake. “Oh—shit!” She dashed over to it, using her massive strength to hoist the thing up and off of the two very flattened men.

They — well, one — moaned, the other just raised a hand. She’d assumed it would be a thumbs up, but it was his middle finger. She put her hands on her hips. “You got silenced, didn’t you?”

The middle finger rose higher.

“Damn it! I knew it! Corneo cheated!” she harrumphed, and reached down to pull them both up, one with each hand. “I can’t stand that guy. Such a bummer that he’s the fuckin’ guy with the money.” Rude and Reno were able to lean on each other as they hobbled out of the arena, but Hilde was in step with them. She was fiddling with the handle of her whip, and a burst of colorful warmth fell over Reno, whose voice suddenly popped out of the air.

“—fucking _fuckers_ and the fucking—!” They paused in the alley, long past Terrible Cowboy Hat, and Reno swung around. “You _had dispel!?_ And you _waited!?_ ”

“You’re welcome, asshole,” Hilde said, wrinkling her nose.

“She was otherwise occupied, Reno,” Rude muttered, and Reno just elbowed Rude in the side.

“Way to take my side, dickhead.”

Rude bit back a smile, more fond than he wanted to admit at just hearing the sound of Reno’s voice. He was pretty sure he never wanted to experience the other man being silenced ever again, especially in a life or death situation. _Thoughts_ had crossed his mind in those moments, and he had to admit he would have easily taken Hilde’s side a thousand times over.

“She saved our lives, tough guy,” Rude teased, and then stopped in front of the waiting room. He let go of Reno so that he could turn to face Hilde. He bowed, deeply. “Thank you. Seriously.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Hilde said, though her cheeks grew pink at the genuine praise. “So, you guys gonna tell me what the _actual_ hell you’re doing here?”

Rude’s face, Hilde noted, was pretty cute when he was surprised. His mouth was a full ‘o’. “Uhh…”

“Your mommy and daddy are lookin’ for you, princess,” Reno grunted, pressing his fingertips into a particularly sensitive bruise at his waist. “Shinra was dispatched to bring you home. They think you got prostituted, kid.”

“ _Kid_!?” Hilde hissed and barely kept herself from shoving the shorter man back.

“That won’t be far from the truth, either,” Rude said, a semblance of calm falling back over his features. “The Don has his eye on you.”

Hilde folded her arms in irritation. “So does everything with a dick down here, but as you can see, I can _take care of myself_.”

Reno groaned inwardly. Where were all these dames getting all this damn internalized power? It was making their babysitting jobs a hell of a lot harder.

“The Don’s going to come for you,” Rude said, looking apologetic. “And if you say no, he’s gonna make your life hell. He’s not gonna let you fight. Shit, you might get actually kidnapped. I’ve heard of some real nasty stuff going on in that mansion of his.”

Hilde’s lip shook for a moment. “I can take it all.”

“Can’t take getting tranquilized and restrained, girlie,” Reno said, throwing himself against the wall. “Fuck, can’t we go somewhere else to talk? If I’m not in my bed in fifteen minutes, I think I’m just gonna lay down and die.”

Hilde frowned, pressing her lips together. “What can you do for me?”

Rude glanced over at Reno, and then sighed. “Come with us to the Honeybee Inn.” Her eyes flashed with fury, and Rude quickly held up his hands. “It’s not like that! We just need some time to talk with the higher ups. Work something out.”

“I’m _not_ going back to my parents. They want me to be a socialite. I’ve been training since I was a little girl to _fight_.”

“You could join the SOLDIER program,” Reno said thoughtfully.

“Fuck Shinra,” she spat, and then struggled to hide a smirk. “No offense.”

Reno just shrugged, staring up at the ceiling, counting his last breaths before he would eventually, dramatically, fall forward. Forcing Rude to carry him across Wall Market had its appeal.

“Okay, fine. I’ll come with you. But on one condition.”

“Anything,” Rude said, relieved.

“I wanna meet Andrea Rhodea, for real. Madam M never lets me talk to him!”

Rude groaned with such defeat that Reno perked up as though he’d had an espresso. “Well, let’s boogie, then!”

The two followed Hilde out, and Rude leaned in to Reno’s ear to whisper tenderly, “Hate you,” in a tone that meant anything but.

“Likewise,” Reno said, smirking, as they leaned on each other for the walk back.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> once again huge shoutout for my muse + cheerleader cryogenia thank you :sob:
> 
> Find me on Twitter @[MantaWords](http://twitter.com/MantaWords) for snippets and R/R spam.
> 
> Have some Rufus & Tseng and more "Making Rude Suffer".

Rude had never been so relieved to see the Honeybee Inn. Hilde had been very patient as the two Turks stumbled painfully back to the club, always ten awkward steps behind, and he was grateful that she didn’t give up and ditch them.

The doorman recognized them, though he lifted an eyebrow. “The hell happened to you?” he asked, stepping aside, and Reno just growled at him.

“Never actually been in here before,” Hilde murmured as they stepped into the club, booming music coming from behind the ballroom doors.

Rude leaned against the front desk. “Where’s Andrea,” he said flatly.

The receptionist wrinkled his nose. “Otherwise indisposed, I’m sorry—”

“Ah! Rude!”

They looked up to see Lukas who looked a bit out of breath. He had a nervous air about him. “I heard about what happened! Andrea came back as soon as Hilde jumped in — big fan, by the way, Ms. Hellhound — but ah, I have some news.”

“Whatever. Take me to Andrea,” Rude huffed, and Lukas just bit his lip. “Are you sure you don’t—”

“You heard the man, damn!” Reno spat. “Let’s go!”

Hilde grinned, lost in all the nonsense, and the trio followed Lukas’ halting footsteps to the private side room they had first had drinks with him in. There, seated in front of Andrea Rhodea, were the guests Lukas had been trying to warn him about.

Tseng’s eyes snapped up to meet Rude’s, but Rufus seemed otherwise pre-occupied with his drink.

Rude froze in the doorway with a shocked grunt.

“Hey, boss,” Reno said, shouldering past Rude so that he could throw his dirty tired body onto one of the chaises; it happened to be the one Rufus was seated on. “Oh, god, that’s good.”

“What are you, ah…” Rude was struggling to put a sentence together, but Hilde pushed him out of the way from behind and tossed herself down next to Reno.

Tseng slowly lifted an eyebrow.

“We got her, by the way,” Reno said, and tilted his head up.

“Lukas,” Andrea said a little too sweetly, “get them some drinks, would you? That gross blue thing for Reno will be fine.”

Finally Rude had to step fully into the room to get out of the way of the door as Lukas slid out. He, in his tight t-shirt and clean-shaven face and aviators and glitzy boots, did not want to be here, particularly in front of Tseng. Rufus had the kind of look on his face that implied he was only here because Tseng was here; his pupils were a little more dilated than usual. He was smirking when he patted his thigh, and Reno’s dirty head landed on the pristine white of his pant leg.

Rude swallowed hard as he watched Rufus pet the man’s head. Reno’s looked like a cat who knew he got away with something bad.

“Why are you dressed like that?” Tseng asked.

Rude looked anywhere he could but at Tseng’s face. “We wanted to get close to Hilde without being obvious Turks, and uh.”

“I’m not going back with you,” Hilde said, breaking the awkward line of thought. She looked down, not exactly surprised when Reno kicked his dirty red boots up onto her legs. She rolled her eyes, letting him. “These two idiots claimed they could ‘work something out’ for me.”

Tseng never looked away from Rude, who was doing his best to remain calm, but it had been a _very_ long day. Rude sat down across from the three of them, putting his elbows on his knees and hanging his head down. “Why do the parents actually want her to return?”

“Not our business,” Tseng said simply, seated on his own seat, as he preferred.

“My whole ass,” Hilde huffed. “It’s my business, and if you’re involved with me, then it’s your business, too. I’m telling you, I’m not going back. My uncle got me into fighting and it’s pissed them off ever since.”

“She can’t stay here, either,” Rude said, finally lifting his head and watching Tseng tiredly. “Now she’s gonna have the Don on her tail.”

Rufus finally laughed out loud into his drink. “That greasy fuck? He is slippery, I’ll give you that.”

Rude glanced at Rufus, then back at Tseng, mouthing, _What’s going on?_ Tseng chose not to acknowledge that. “We’re doing this on behalf of President Shinra, and his interest in keeping shareholders happy,” Tseng said blandly. “There’s nothing that can be done.”

“This is bullshit!” Hilde shouted, pushing Reno’s feet off her legs to jump to her feet. “Everything was fine until you punks showed up out of nowhere—”

Lukas chose that moment to wander back in with a tray of three more drinks, one of which was the tropical monstrosity Reno had gotten once before. Hilde’s eyes flashed dangerously at Lukas, but he simply shrugged as he placed a bourbon in Rude’s tired hands and a slim glass full of bubbly liquid into Hilde’s.

“Why not spin it?” Rufus asked in a bored voice.

Tseng glanced back at Rufus. “Sir?”

Rufus pushed at Reno’s prone body, nearly shoving him off the chaise. He grumbled, rolling up to a seated position, but it was just in time to grab the noxiously blue drink from Lukas. He scooted further away from Rufus to take a very long sip.

Rufus ran a hand through his soft hair, though it just flopped back into his eyes. “Spin it. Say that we found the girl, and that she was escaping from an abusive household; that they manipulated us into wasting time and resources to bring her home for, you know.” He waved a hand, his drink splashing just a bit out of the glass. “Abuse, or whatever it is.”

Everyone grew very quiet as the gears turned in their heads. Rufus snorted, finishing the rest of his scotch in an undignified gulp. “Or not. Plebians, looking a gift horse in the mouth—”

“This is the Veep?” Hilde asked, staring at Rufus in pleased surprise. “Maybe the Shinra cronies aren’t as stupid as I’d thought.”

The silence was much more dangerous this time, only it was cut off by Rufus’ laugh. He tossed the glass on the table in front of him. “Fascinating,” he said, the tone of his voice tingeing on manic. “Why is it the nicest thing I have ever heard from anyone in this room is from the stranger?” He closed his eyes, letting his head fall back.

Tseng cleared his throat. “Well, it is a matter of ability and time; if it is worth it for the President to make a task force—”

“Who gives a shit what the old man wants?” Rufus said, head lolling to the side. “You, girl. Come sit with me.”

Hilde glanced at the others, though none of them made eye contact. She plopped down on the chaise between Rufus and Reno, and Rufus lifted his head with a smirk. “Once these idiots finish their report, you should stay with Andrea and me.”

Tseng was very good at keeping his expression neutral, but Rude could see the beginnings of color on his cheeks.

“I’d like to make sure she has protection,” Rude said quietly, struggling to make eye contact with Tseng all the same. “At least until Corneo loses interest.”

Tseng sighed, standing up to pace. He wanted to put a little distance between himself and Rufus’ wheedling flirtations with the frankly enormous muscular woman. “This was not the intention for this mission. You’re lucky that Andrea is a close friend.”

Rude choked, then. “He’s — _what_?”

“You don’t think I didn’t do thorough background checks when you were all hired? Of course I knew about Andrea.” Tseng pulled his gloves off, tucking them into his suit jacket. “It was all the better that you avoided Wall Market like the plague.”

Rude glanced over at Andrea, who had been focused on Lukas on a loveseat out of the way of the room. Andrea glanced up with a shrug. “You never call!”

Tseng sighed. “Fine. You’ve brought her to us, as intended. You’re dismissed.” He shrugged out of his suit jacket. “You’re free to head back to the plate.”

“S…sir,” Rude said, head swaying.

“Aw, you don’t want us to hang out?” Reno asked, halfway through the blue punch bowl of booze. “I wanna chill with the honeybees and get high with the veep!”

“Not on your life,” Rufus said over Hilde’s shoulder.

Rude stood up quickly, closing his eyes quickly. “We’ll head back first thing in the morning.” He wanted to return to their room and lick his wounds. “Thank you, sir.” Rude headed towards the exit when he heard Andrea clear his throat loudly. He turned, sighing as he watched Reno inch closer to Hilde. “Reno.”

Reno gave an exaggerated frown. “Fine. Jeez. Fuckin’ party pooper.” He stood up, bringing his drink with him as they made their way out. Reno was just able to see Tseng start to loosen his tie as the door shut and locked behind them.

“Tsch! I wanted to see them kiss!”

“Not even gonna ask who,” Rude muttered, too tired to even hang on the other man as they made their way back to their room.

“Aw, you mad at me?” Reno cooed with a laugh. The door clicked open and still Rude could see all his clothes spread out on the floor. He sighed with exhaustion.

“No. Just tired. I just want to shower off the blood and dirt,” he said, and then pulled Reno into his arms, “and then I want to sleep like this.”

Reno gazed up at him, plucking the aviators off his face. Rude’s expression was very tired indeed, though his eyes were sweet in a way that made Reno want to take care of him.

“Deal.”

* * *

It had been a week. Rude’s beard had reappeared with carefully curated maintenance, and both of their bodies were on the road to recovery. Big dark patches of blue and red all over them had faded, only Reno left with a few splashes of uncomfortable yellow on his sides.

Hilde the Hellhound’s story had been playing on the media nonstop; with the acclaim, she had no trouble continuing to fight in the Corneo Colosseum, as the man had a lot of sway, but not enough to fight off the Shinra-owned media. They had accomplished what they’d set out to do, mostly, and things had returned to normal.

They had been assigned a boring patrol through the Sector 3 plate; Reno was getting antsy and said he was going to sniff out something to eat Rude had agreed to come along, but stopped outside of a gaudy little accessories shop with big red ‘SALE!’ signs.

Reno knew about Rude’s weakness for trinkets, so he waved dismissively at his partner as he went to find a place that would have tonight’s particular food craving.

Rude shoved his hands in his pockets as he perused; the shopkeeper didn’t even look nervous, a hunched over old man who mostly watched Rude with suspicion. Rude tutted to himself at that, bending down to eye some of the pieces. Cheap little bangles that held one or two unslotted materia, gaudy star earrings and moon necklaces, several moogle keychains. He smirked at the memory of that ugly moogle mug.

As he eyed some of the slim rings, a thought came to mind. He looked up at the shopkeeper who still had an eye trained him and opened his mouth. Then he closed it, then opened it again.

“Speak up, junior!” the man grumped.

“Ah,” Rude started, and then cleared his throat. “Do you have any silence protection?”

The shopkeeper shrugged. “Rings is all we got for that. Very concentrated stuff. Three thousand gil for a silence ring.”

Rude frowned a bit. That wasn’t too bad for an enchanted accessory, though the fact that he was now pondering whether he wanted to drop that much cash on what was essentially a _ring_ to give to _Reno._ It wasn’t weird; it was the perfect way to prevent him from having ever had to go through _that_ again. But it was also a _ring_. That he was going to give to a man who made his chest feel tight when he looked at him in the middle of the night, in his _bed_.

Rude stared at the ring, face going more and more red, until the shopkeeper tapped on his hand on the glass case. “Three thousand gil! You want or not?”

He was reaching for his wallet before he’d really decided ‘yes’ or ‘no’. The sight of his wallet in his hands meant it was a pretty definitive ‘yes’. “Uh, yeah. The um. The middle one.”

The shopkeeper’s expression softened with amusement as he took the cash out of Rude’s gloved hands and then popped open the case to pull out the slim silver ring. He dropped it in Rude’s palm and inclined his head a bit. “Anything else?”

Rude’s fingers closed over it even as his eyes seemed to focus very tightly on his own hand. “Uh.” He finally looked up, the blush spreading to the tips of his ears. “Nope.” He inclined his head and then high-tailed it out of the shop, the cool late afternoon air soothing on his flaming cheeks. He stuffed the ring into his inner jacket pocket. It had cost a suitable amount, he wanted to keep it safe.

Also the fact that he was giving it to Reno since he was so—

“ _Nope_ ,” he repeated, quickly heading down the street, attempting to clear his busy mind. He kept an eye out and nose open for any little street carts that would have something Reno would gravitate towards. After five minutes of walking, his face was suitably neutral again, and he spotted Reno.

The redhead had those big dumb eyes that got particularly excited about greasy street food, awkwardly holding three closed trays of food and one chunk of meat on a stick. Reno turned towards him, grinning with his eyes closed, and waved the little stick.

Rude froze, and the ring felt hot as molten metal in his pocket.

 _Oh_.

_Look at him._

That squeezing feeling was back in his chest.

Reno had sauntered up to him in the mean time, gnawing at the chunk of meat awkwardly while holding out the boxes. “C’mom,” he said, mouth full, “take dese. We c’n shit over dere.”

Rude took the boxes, barely repressing a grin as Reno turned towards a set of cheap tables set up between several of the food carts. He was still talking, but his mouth was so full that it was hard to make the words out. It didn’t matter; Rude was 99% sure that Reno hardly cared about what he was saying. Sometimes he just liked to fill the air with his voice. It was nice, since Rude didn’t feel like making that much noise most of the time.

Reno was picking his teeth with the skewer end of the stick by the time they sat down. “I got gyoza to share,” he said needlessly, as if he didn’t always. Rude popped open the boxes, glad to see Reno had gotten his usual order for him. Reno was thankfully silent for the rest of the meal, though at the end he stretched and let out the kind of noise that bordered on a moaning squeal.

“Goood!” he said, putting his hands behind his head. “I was hungry as a three-headed dog.”

Rude quirked his lips at him. “Me too,” he admitted.

Reno pushed himself to standing, grabbing the empty containers and tossing them. Rude had gotten so distracted with the food he’d forgotten what he’d been so weird about before.

“You think patrol’s done?”

“Yup.”

“Drinks?” Reno asked. “Bet we can drag Elena along. Maybe Tseng. I’ve not seen them get _properly_ drunk together.” They started walking towards the train station. “You gotta admit, that’d be funny. Have you seen the way she eats up whatever he says?”

“Hey—uh. Wait a second,” Rude said, and grabbed Reno by the wrist. The redhead lifted an eyebrow at him as Rude pulled him aside, close to an alley out of the way. It was quieter here, even though it smelled like stale cigarettes.

“What’s up, big guy?” Reno teased.

“I um.” Rude was nervous, which was exactly the wrong feeling to have. He shook his head. “I got you a thing at the accessories place.”

“Ooh,” Reno said, lips spreading into a grin. “You know I like presents.”

Rude rolled his eyes, his partner’s attitude helping shake some of that nervousness loose. He reached into his inner pocket. Reno just smirked at him, holding out his hand palm up.

Rude dropped the ring into his hand.

Reno stared at it for a _too-long_ ten seconds and then closed his fingers on it. “Rude,” he said, expression growing more mischievous. “You got me a _ring_?”

“It’s for silence!” Rude said immediately, folding his arms over his chest. “It’s, ah. It’s for protection. Against silence.”

His fingers opened again, and Reno instead lifted it to look at it. His expression turned much less devious. “It’s kinda cool looking.”

Rude shrugged. “I wasn’t going to get you something you wouldn’t like,” he said casually.

“You really didn’t like it when I was silenced, huh?” Reno asked, though a lot of the bite to his grin had softened.

“Not as much as you didn’t,” Rude said softly. “But, no. I didn’t like it. Even if it wasn’t just about the lack of abilities.” He looked at the alley’s entryway and the sky and the ground, anywhere but Reno’s face.

Reno looked pleased, reaching up to touch Rude’s face. “Hey, c’mon. Look at me, asshole.”

Rude did, just in time for Reno to pull the man’s sunglasses off his face and kiss him, long and sweet. When he pulled back, Rude could only stare at him, mouth slightly open. God, he was drunk on him.

“Thanks,” Reno said, and then put the sunglasses back on his face before he slipped the ring on over his glove. No immediate effect, he thought, other than the warm feeling spreading in his chest. That must have been from the ring’s spell. “Can’t believe you got me a _ring_.”

Rude huffed, pushing his glasses up his nose. “You liked wearing rings just fine as _Rian_.”

“Uh huh,” Reno said, grinning. “You know I’m not gonna shut up about this.” His eyebrows raise very slowly. “That’s the point, isn’t it?”

“What can I say?” Rude said, straightening his tie as he let them step out of the alley. “I like you talkative.”

The redhead rolled his eyes, thumb sliding over the unfamiliar feeling of a ring over his gloved finger. He wouldn’t admit it, but he could feel the bridge of his nose turning pink. “Hey, forget drinks,” he said, bumping Rude’s hip irritatingly with his own. “Take me back to yours.”

“What for?” Rude teased.

“You got me somethin’ real nice,” Reno said benevolently. “I’d like to repay the favor.”

Rude’s own mouth was running without him quite able to stop it; did that damn protection silence have some sort of area of effect? “It’s a lot to repay, that thing cost me three K.”

The two entered the train, even as Reno choked. “ _What_?”

“Enchanting is expensive,” Rude shrugged.

Reno stared at him for a long moment, eyes narrow. He invaded his personal space, the two of them standing and hanging on to the same guiding rail above their heads. “If this train were empty,” Reno whispered into his ear, “I’d push you down, sit on your lap and show you what I think about that. Lucky for you…” He jerked his head to the side, the train car clearly occupied by a variety of people.

Rude straightened up at the thought. “So I just had to buy your affection,” Rude hummed. “I didn’t think you were that kind of girl.”

Reno slugged him in the side. He’d pulled back on it, but it was enough to make Rude choke. “You’re lucky you got a tight ass,” he chuckled at Rude. “Jerk.”

“Sorry,” Rude chuckled, letting out a slightly wounded sigh. “Didn’t think that’d hit a nerve.”

Reno lifted his chin defiantly. “I don’t like the _implication_ , partner.”

Rude leaned close to him, lips against Reno’s ear. “In which case, yes, we’ll go home, and you can do whatever you want to me to make up for it.”

Reno’s eyes sparkled at him in a way that made Rude dizzy. “Deal.”


	8. Epilogue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THERE! IT'S DONE! AND THE RATING HAS DRASTICALLY CHANGED!
> 
> This is the completely optional Epilogue chapter which serves as the main purpose for my having written this ridiculous fic in the first place: shibari Rude.
> 
> You do not have to read this. Hell you don't even have to read the rest of the story, you can *just* read this one if you want an extremely self-indulgent love scene.
> 
> LOVE YALL, find me on Twitter @[MantaWords](http://twitter.com/MantaWords)!!

The walk home had put Reno into a _funny_ mood. A strange calmness had settled over his shoulders, though Rude would occasionally see him fidget with the ring over his gloved finger. At one point, Reno had caught him watching him, and he lifted that finger to pull down on his lower eyelid. Rude snorted at him in response.

Rude’s apartment was cool and quiet. He sighed as he pulled his jacket off, expecting Reno to jump him at any moment, but the man was hanging back in the foyer with a thoughtful look on his face as he toed out of his shoes. “Rude,” he said, and Rude paused in loosening his tie to look up at him. “Why don’t you go clean up and wait for me by the bed?”

One eyebrow arched sharply above sunglasses, but he didn’t say anything. He just inclined his head in agreement and made his way to the bathroom.

Reno watched him go, grinning spreading when the door was shut. This was something he’d been planning for a little while, but he hadn’t had such a perfect opportunity to pull everything out until now. The only question was, would he remember where he _stashed_ everything?

The foyer closet had the snap-closure cock ring; the one drawer in the dresser he’d claimed for himself had all the t-shirts he’d left over the past few months, the tight blue jeans he’d stolen from Andrea’s, and the translucent, open-ended cock sleeve; and he’d had a brown paper bag under what had become ‘his’ side of the bed that held 50 feet of dark purple rope and a pair of shears.

He tossed the rope bag on the bed before shimmying out of his work clothes, changing into those tight jeans. If nothing else, it’d be torturous to rub on Rude’s skin in them. He pulled his hair tie out in order to twist his long ponytail up into a loose bun on the back of his head, tying it in place to keep it out of his way. The only items he had on were the jeans and of course, the silence ring. He’d pulled his gloves off and still stuck it back on, grinning fondly at it the whole time.

He started uncoiling the rope to find the middle, humming a jaunty little tune when Rude stepped through the door, towel dry and naked, smelling of that floral sage artisan soap he liked. Their eyes met and Reno could tell that Rude had been preparing for _something_ along these lines. He had wordlessly followed Reno’s order earlier, and Rude’s eyes on the long line of rope in his hands simply made Rude’s cheeks grow red.

Reno tilted his head at him with a grin. “Say no, if you don’t want me to,” he said. His fingers were moving over the rope with practiced ease, and Rude was eating him alive with his eyes, even if he was the one standing there golden and nude.

“I want you to,” Rude murmured.

“Good,” Reno smiled, and gestured. “Get out the butt plug.”

The blush spread to Rude’s ears, but he obeyed without hesitation; it wasn’t even in his bedside table, but instead in the dresser in his sock drawer. Reno grinned at him. Why hide something in your own damn home? Rude was cute like that.

Rude dropped the red plug into Reno’s hands, though his eyes caught the thin band of silver and Rude’s expression turned bashful. Reno hummed thoughtfully. “Bend over the bed.”

Reno watched Rude’s heavy cock twitch at the order, letting his eyebrows raise as he tilted his head. Rude was already walking towards the bed, and still Reno chuffed, “Come on.”

Rude bent down over the comforter, turning his head so he wasn’t just face planted into it. He shut his eyes, but could hear Reno’s next order clearly: “Spread your legs. More.” The soles of his feet slowly moved further apart until Reno snapped, “There. Good boy.” A pleased little tremble wound its way down Rude’s back. He liked being good.

Reno trailed two fingertips down Rude’s shivering back. “You still with me? Full sentences, now.”

“Yes, Reno, I’m fine,” Rude said, though his voice was breathy.

Reno dropped to his knees behind Rude’s legs. He placed the plug next to Rude’s thigh, ignoring it for the time being. Instead, his hands landed on Rude’s ass, thumbs sliding in and up to spread the cheeks. Rude let out a soft groan which turned into a much more embarrassing noise when Reno moved in to lick a stripe over his hole.

Normally it wasn’t easy to get Rude to settle down for a long time for this, but Reno was calling the shots. Every ticklish little lick caused Rude’s breath to turn staccato; every deep probing push of his tongue caused him to choke on a moan. Reno was able to pull his ass backwards, moving him up and away from the bed enough that Rude’s hardening cock couldn’t be pressed against the mattress. “Reno,” he whispered, fingers clawing at the blanket, but still Reno didn’t let up.

When he finally stopped, it was so that he could snatch the lube and slide his wet index finger easily into him. His tongue joined the finger, affectionately relaxing the twitching ring of muscle.

Reno pulled back, hooking a second finger into him and listening to the bone-deep groan that slithered out of Rude’s lips. “I think you’re ready for the plug, now.”

Rude did press his face into the blanket now in a desperate attempt to muffle the sounds. Reno slipped his fingers out to coat the bright red plug in lube, letting the salacious wet sound drive Rude crazier. Then he pressed the tip of it against Rude’s clean, but slippery ass, pressing it in all the way until the flared base settled comfortably against his skin.

Rude’s voice had left him, now just panting in great gasps, his knees pressing hard against the wooden bed frame under the mattress.

Reno gave Rude’s ass one more thorough squeeze. “Very good.” He stood up, using Rude’s body to help himself climb up, though it was mostly an excuse to get to touch the trembling man. “Up you go.” Rude pushed himself up off the bed after that, eyes gazing at the floor.

“Hey, you okay?” Reno murmured.

Rude squirmed a bit. “Yeah.”

“You dropped?”

“No,” Rude said, and couldn’t stop himself from rolling his eyes that he’d be so easy.

Reno tipped his head, giving him a lopsided grin. “Good. Don’t be embarrassed, Rude. I like you like this.”

Rude’s nose crinkled, his eyes rising to meet Reno’s, finally. “You had this stuff here, did you?”

“You didn’t think I was gonna forget about _that_ , did you?” he replied. “So you better answer, this time. Do you like to be tied up?”

Rude just nodded very slowly at him with a shrug. Reno’s eyes traveled over the slanted trapezius muscles, the long torso, the thick cock, and reached down to pick up the center of the rope he’d marked off before.

“You like to be fucked while you’re tied up?” Reno asked, keeping his eyes on Rude’s. Rude’s ears grew pink, and he nodded again.

“You need an out? Safe word?”

Rude rolled his eyes again. “‘Stop’. There’s no circumstance I’d not mean that.”

Reno shrugged at that. “Just checkin’.” He pulled the little clamp off the rope, almost satiny in its finish, so that he could pull the bite of the rope over Rude’s neck, holding it in place on his back. He set the strands of rope at the center of Rude’s chest, grinning up at him, before he began to pull the tips of the rope up and over itself, slowly forming a chain of knots down his long body.

Rude’s hands rested at his sides, even though his fingers were tightening into fists as Reno worked his way down. His eyes felt heavy even though he was beginning to get keyed up, toes curling. “When did you learn to do this?”

Reno hummed, dropping to one knee. “You had your mysterious past, I got mine.” He let his thumbs trace over Rude’s bare skin at the base of his cock, pleased he still shaved, particularly for this. He formed a little diamond around the entire package and then slid the rope between his legs. “Turn around for me,” he grunted as he stood back up, one finger still holding the tails of the rope.

It took Rude a full five seconds to feel sure in his footsteps to turn around. Reno pressed himself against Rude’s back with a small huff of laughter. He slid his right arm around Rude, pulling him into a light hug. “How we doin’?”

“Uh-huh,” was all Rude said. Reno chuckled, easing himself far enough away that he could still tie looped knots, but not lose total body contact. He formed a knot low on his ass so that as he drew it up, it would press against the flared base of the butt plug.

“Gonna tighten you up,” Reno said, placing one kiss on the back of Rude’s neck. He just made another soft sound of affirmation so that Reno felt comfortable looping the rope ends through the bite still at the center of his back, and then yanking it tight in a sharp _zip!_ of corded rope. Rude let out a very long, low moan as he had to adjust to that sensation of the knot pushing the plug deeper inside him, not to mention the tremorous little vibrations that traveled along the dyed hemp.

“You like that?” Reno chuckled, placing another nip on the side of Rude’s neck now. “You still with me?”

“Uh huh,” Rude replied as before, though Reno could clearly hear the dopey smile from his voice. Reno pressed up against him again, separating the rope into his hands as he wrapped both arms around him again.

“Turn around for me again.”

This time it was about ten seconds, aided very much by Reno’s own body weight, but he slowly turned. Rude’s mouth was slightly open and he must have been pressing his lips together so hard they looked kiss swollen already. “Tying your arms down,” he said. “Got it?”

“Uh huh,” Rude said, warm eyes settled closed. Reno drank in the sight of him, pulling the rope around to hook into the line of knots he had made down the front of his body, then again and again down Rude’s arms until they were tied solidly against his body in three strips. His body touched in a long line where he could, half supporting Rude’s weight against his thighs and hip. Reno let go of the ropes, long strands still hanging off of each of Rude’s wrists once he’d finished.

“Scale of one to spacing out,” Reno murmured, scratching his fingernails along the rope that pinched around Rude’s nipple rings. Rude let out a shuddery gasp. “How we feeling, big guy?”

“Um,” Rude said, scrunching his nose up.

Reno trailed his fingers along the underside of Rude’s cock, and the taller man let out an eager little sigh.

“High number,” Rude huffed. “Not there yet.”

Reno smiled indulgently. He was glad Rude was in such good humor; it was nice and easy, letting Reno settle into a position of power he hadn’t been in _properly_ in a long time. “C’mon, then,” Reno said, leaning close enough that he was able to shift one knee onto the bed behind them. It caused Rude’s weight to displace so that he sat back on the bed with a little surprised laugh. Reno then pushed him all the way back, letting Rude’s legs hang off the edge. His fingers slid over the lines of rope over Rude’s arms and chest. “Comfortable?”

Goosebumps rose on Rude’s body, the tickling feel from the rope causing him to squirm. “Uh huh.”

“Aren’t you just so agreeable?” Reno asked, smirking, and pushed himself up off the bed. Rude’s cock curved up towards his belly, resting across a few strands of rope. Reno dug his fingers into his back pocket, pulling out the leather cock ring he’d grabbed earlier to fasten it around the base of his balls, snapping it tight.

Rude made a tiny surprised sound. “Ah..?”

“I have bad news, Rude,” Reno said, trailing his hands over the tops of Rude’s thighs as he stepped between his legs. “I’m gonna make you beg.” He slid a warm, calloused hand under Rude’s left thigh, pushing it up until Rude’s knee fell slack. “Maybe, if you’re lucky, I’ll let you come.” Reno huddled his warm hips and thighs up against Rude’s exposed skin, leaning over him to pull the rope from his left hand to wrap around Rude’s thigh, and then knee, and then filling the space with the remainder of rope.

One side finished, he trailed his fingertips from the top of the rope at his thigh inwards, teasing at the rope rubbing along Rude’s perineum. Rude moaned softly, though his breaths were coming in excited little pants.

Reno glanced up at his face, saw the deep flush of his cheeks and felt proud. “I like you exposed for me like this,” Reno purred, and began to push Rude’s other leg up to wrap it in a similar way. His own dick had been hard since he’d put the damn rope around his neck, and now he could finally press the bulging line in denim up against Rude’s bare ass and thighs. “Only I get to see you like this.”

Rude’s fingers flexed at his sides, eyes opening slowly to level on Reno. Reno’s focus was entirely on the rope until he tied off his second leg, intent on a comfortable tie. When their eyes met, Reno felt a rush of arousal so sharp he could feel precum staining his jeans. Damn. “You look so handsome like this,” Reno hummed, now allowing himself to trail his fingers over the web of purple rope all over Rude’s bronzed body. “So pretty. Does it feel good?”

Rude’s voice got very quiet even as his neck arched up. “Yes,” he breathed.

Reno grinned as he leaned over him, fingers wiggling over the center of the harness and shaking it a bit, causing all of Rude’s body to jerk. The shivers were like butterfly kisses. “You wanna be good for me?”

“ _Yes_ , baby,” Rude whispered, and Reno felt that same jolt of arousal in his chest, this time. Fuck.

“Good boy,” Reno breathed, and finally leaned down over his whole body to press their lips together. Rude’s mouth was slack and accepting of Reno’s probing kisses, even as his own back gently ground back against the bed. Reno pulled back, tracing Rude’s bottom lip with his tongue. “Quit squirming.”

Rude whined in apology. Reno’s fingertips slid over the rope around his neck and down to the center of his chest again, sliding his fingers within the open spots as his thumb plucked at the rope. Reno’s jeans were rough but warm, grinding against Rude’s tender balls as he leaned over him. Still Rude squirmed, though Reno was well aware he’d have to be dead to _not_.

Reno arched away from him, stopping the kiss to press his middle and ring fingers of his left hand into Rude’s mouth. Rude took them in with ease, even as Reno aggressively pressed his fingers against his tongue. Rude let his eyes flutter open when he licked along the underside of each finger, daring to make eye contact as the tip of his tongue slid along the ring band. Reno hissed at the feeling of it more than the sight of it. It was unbearably intimate to have this giant man at his mercy, sucking eagerly at his fingers.

“You want me to touch you?” Reno murmured, hips lazily weighing down against the other’s. He didn’t take his hand away, instead watching Rude give him an unbearably sultry nod, wetness slipping from his lips as they moved back and forth over his fingers.

Damn, teasing him was going to be harder than he thought.

Reno pulled his fingers out of Rude’s mouth with a wet slurp. His lips were still half open, his expression blissed out; his eyes were very alluring like this. Hell, with his eyes uncovered every facial expression was something to savor. He’d had every intention of making Rude wait a long time before Reno gave him anything satisfying or rewarding, but the only thing he could think about now was working his pants open.

Reno stood up straight, pulling away from him entirely to scoot his hands under Rude’s ass, shoving him further back into the bed. Rude purred, head turning to the side as the ropes rubbed over sensitized skin. There was room now for Reno to climb up onto the bed, kneeling between Rude’s legs as his hands slid down his own body.

Rude was floating, but had his eyes opened and trained very intently on Reno. It was almost strange to feel so observed by someone so completely under his control, but Reno liked it. His long fingertips slid under the waist of his too-tight jeans, then popped the button on them. He watched Rude’s eyebrows draw up in the center. He grinned, cupping himself with a moan, the zipper pressing almost painfully against his erection. He could feel the wet spot that was spreading, too, thumb tickling over it with a little hitch in his breath.

Rude was watching him like a half tranquilized predator, his eyes hyper-focused and glazed over simultaneously. Reno filed that image away in his spank bank, pleased as he tipped his head to the side, opening the zipper at an abysmally slow pace. Rude’s eyes were drawn directly to his hands and what lay beyond.

“I wanted to touch you,” Reno said, voice bordering on nasal as he teased the man below him. “But I got a more pressing problem.” He wiggled the sides of the fly open and his cock sprung out with a groan of relief. “You’re too fuckin’ hot, Rude.”

Rude’s body shifted again from side to side, his fingers flexing and straightening out. Reno could practically see the pulse pounding at his throat. God, he really _was_ too hot, and wrapped a hand around himself to stroke himself, the tips of his knuckles just barely brushing Rude’s straining dick below.

Reno was struggling to keep it slow, the head of his cock sliding out between index and middle fingers. His hand was already wet, he’d gotten so worked up from tying up his partner. “You look so fuckin’ good like this. Delicious. I can barely get through the day on a normal day without poppin’ a fucking boner at the sight of you, but this?” He had to take his hand away, leaving a wet handprint on Rude’s inner thigh as he squeezed the man’s leg instead. “You know what’d make you look even better?”

Rude did not look away from Reno’s mouthwatering dick, but he did shake his head in response to the rhetorical question.

“If I marked you up,” Reno said, and leaned far over Rude’s body again, this time dropping his chest centimeters from Rude’s lips as he reached for the item he’d thrown on the bed earlier. He felt Rude’s tongue slither out to taste his skin and just smirked as he drew himself back up. Rude’s pupils were drawn wide, doped up on the sight and smell of him. Reno hid the little item in his hand as he reached for the bottle of lube again. “Would you like that? Lemme come all over this body, these ropes? Painted you up?” He squirted the lube into his hand, squeezing the clear jelly in his hand with a foreign sounding _squelch_.

Rude’s hips were rolling into the bed at the suggestion. Reno used his free hand to slap a rope-covered pectoral, Rude whimpering while he rubbed the nipple between ropes. “I told you, quit squirming,” Reno chastised, even as he opened his left hand to show the transparent cock sleeve, filled with slim little ribs. Reno bit his lip with a grin, pressing one of the open ends against Rude’s cock and sliding it down just enough to envelope the head in a tight, wet kiss, before pulling it off again.

Rude cried out, and at this angle Reno could _see_ the base of the plug pull inwards. Rude was clenching around it. _Fuck_.

It was a relief to instead pull the lubed up cock sleeve over himself, eyes actually shutting in pleasure as he pulled it all the way down to the base of his dick. The sleeve was only four inches long, and it was particularly nice to watch the head of his cock poke out of it as he moved it over himself with agonizingly slow movements. He opened his eyes to gaze at his partner: Rude’s mouth was open, and he was _panting_ just from watching Reno. It was the kind of face he wanted to fuck with abandon. Next time, he thought, as he pulled the sleeve off himself.

“You want my cum, Rude?” Reno asked none-too-sweetly, sliding the sleeve over the head of Rude’s cock torturously again, just once.

“ _Yes_!” Rude yelped, shoulders and arms trembling with the effort to stay still.

“Yeah..?” Reno teased. He used the toy on himself again, speeding up a bit more this time, the tingling rush of orgasm just out of reach.

“Yes, baby, _please_ ,” Rude groaned, the sight and sloppy sounds causing his already rock-hard dick to twitch and leak.

“God, yeah, anything you want, Rude. You make me so fuckin’ hot.” His hand was working himself over fast now, the sleeve massaging the sensitive head of his dick. “I’m gonna fuck you so damn hard, I wanna make you lose your fuckin’ _mind_ , fuck, I’m gonna come. I’m gonna come all over you, isn’t that what you want?”

He pulled the clear sleeve tight against the base of his dick as he pumped his hand over it, not even letting Rude respond as he shot lines of cum over the other man’s torso, one white strip landing hotly across Rude’s cock. Reno hunched above him, moaning softly as he dragged the sleeve up and over the sensitive head of his dick to squeeze once, twice, a smug smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. He looked down at Rude’s face and the sight alone caused his spent dick to twitch with interest.

Rude was _riled up_. He was both floating in that warm space of comfort _and_ edgy beyond belief; his dick had been torturously ignored, only touching it enough to make it even more swollen and needy. Watching Reno was one of his favorite pass times on a normal day, but this way, with him above him, splattering him in it… All he could do was watch him with his mouth half-open, always one little movement away from pleading.

“God, look at you,” Reno huffed, popping the toy off of him and letting the soft, wet opening of the sleeve kiss the head of Rude’s dick once more. Rude’s low voice churned out another whine. “Feels good, huh? Using my cum to make this nice and slippery.” Reno’s fingers curled around the cock sleeve and slowly pressed it down, watching lube and cum slowly squirt out the top even as it encased Rude’s cock. Rude was writhing again, hot puffs of air cutting off every noise being forced out of him.

Reno switched to his right hand so he could use his more coordinated left to slide over the ropes surrounding his cock, his nails scraping over the hemp until he could tap against the base of the butt plug. Rude jerked, causing the already tight cock sleeve to shoot off of him and land messily on his flexed, straining abs.

“Sensitive, huh?” Reno teased, beyond the point of asking him to hold still. He picked up the toy again and carefully pulled it down far enough to finally allow the swollen dark head of his cock to poke out the other side, shiny with lube and precum of his own.

Rude finally said something that wasn’t an affirmation or pleading, just a trembling, drawn-out, “ _Fffffuuuuuck_.”

The toy was stretched to its limit around Rude, and Reno could tell the tightness of it was enough to make Rude’s balls ache. Reno fisted the toy and jerked it quickly over him four, five, six times, and then popped it off, pulling away so there was no contact between them. Rude gnashed his teeth, repeating himself: “ _Fuck!_ ”

Reno watched the veined length of him tremble, oozing his desire all over his abs and the rope. “All for me,” Reno purred, pressing his thumb against the plug again. Rude’s hips shifted just enough to expose himself more, and Reno felt his mouth water. “How loose is that hole for me?” he asked, the dirty words quieting down Rude’s savage breaths. “Why don’t I take that plug out?”

Rude pressed his lips together, nodding. Reno’s eyes narrowed on him, putting the sleeve slowly over the head of his cock again. “I dunno, sounds like you don’t want it that badly,” he said, badly feigning boredom. This time he used both hands to press the tight sleeve down over Rude’s cock, fisting it like one might handle the hilt of an enormous sword. Rude’s voice cracked as Reno pumped him again, four, five, six times, and then pulled off, leaving him with nothing but another thick pulse of precum.

Rude choked out, “ _Baby_ ,” like he’d forgotten Reno’s name and his own, shoulders tensing and shifting. Reno didn’t seem impressed, even though he was already hard again and quite eager to pull the red toy out of him. He once again slid the tight clear sleeve over the head of him, this time just squeezing with one finger as a time, practically playing him like an instrument.

 _That_ got the response he wanted: Rude’s back arching and crying out, “Please! _Please!_ ”

“Better,” Reno said, though his own voice trembled at the intensity of how much he wanted this enormous man who _let him_ torture him this way. He dropped the sleeve on Rude’s chest with a moist _thwip_ , fingers focused now around the rope encasing Rude’s sensitive taint. He scooted back enough that he could lick it, pressing his tongue against that long stretch between balls and ass in a way that made Rude whimper. Reno couldn’t help himself, sliding one smooth ball into his mouth and humming as he sucked, then moving to the other. He tasted so good, like sage and musk and sweat and a little desperation.

His fingers were spreading the rope apart, moving the knot he’d made out of the way as he took hold of the base of the plug, pulling it out in an exaggerated sluggish pace. Rude’s toes and fingers were curling, unable to do much other than make needy panting noises that turned into a syrupy groan when the plug pulled free.

Reno tossed it aside, scooting back up as he slid a finger inside Rude with no warning. Rude gasped, cheeks going pink at how easily he’d opened for him. “Please,” he repeated, now beyond shame that he could feel the long, knobbly digit in him and knowing it was _not_ enough.

“You want that, huh?” Reno purred, his own dick back to full attention and letting the sensitive head of it rest dangerously close to Rude’s hole.

“Uh huh,” Rude said, and Reno grinned at the return of the phrase. This time he just used his fingers alone on Rude’s cock, all five fingertips sliding over him in a ticklish touch. Their eyes met as Reno rubbed his palm over the drooling head, and Rude bit out a very sheepish, “ _please?_ ”

Rude was still sloppy with lube and Reno had intended to torture _him_ , not himself, so he gave in by slamming his cock into the other man in one aggressive thrust, the connection causing them both to make embarrassing little noises. Reno let himself enjoy that wet, tight heat for a good five seconds before he pulled out, his cock slapping himself in the stomach. God, but he wanted him, but he wanted to _wreck_ him first.

Rude called out for him, shaking his head back and forth. “Please,” he wept, “so empty, baby, _please_.”

Reno moaned, biting his lip. “Fuck, you’re hot,” he growled, leaning hard over him and grabbing Rude’s cock to stroke him hard and fast. “It’s so damn unfair.”

Rude stared up at him, gasping, “Close—”

Reno let go of him, panting heavily above him. He watched Rude slowly recede from the brink, his wide brown eyes so deep. He was an open book, and Reno loved everything he was reading. Rude’s chest was rising and falling quickly, enough of a distraction to catch Reno’s eye and pick up the sleeve toy resting there.

“Good boy, for telling me you were close,” Reno uttered. “You’re gonna do that again, right? You let me know.”

“Yes, baby,” he whined, completely lost to the world. Reno was addicted to him like this. He pressed into him again, just a little, enough for Rude to try to shift back against him.

“Seems like you really want this dick,” Reno teased, pretending his own hips weren’t attempting to jackrabbit forward. “But you’re so quiet, I just dunno.”

Reno pulled back out, causing Rude to whine again. Reno still held the wet sleeve toy in his hand, so he pushed it back down on Rude’s cock again, this time holding it all the way down so that it squeezed the lower part of his dick. Rude’s head was rolling back and forth; his eyes were shut as he whimpered, practically chanting, ‘ _Please_ ,’ under his breath.

Reno let go of the sleeve again, letting it slowly roll its way up and off of Rude, both dick and toy thumping against his sweat-slick skin. “Yeah, that’s what I mean,” Reno said thoughtfully, moving down to torturously rub Rude’s balls in the wet palm of his hand. “Please _what_ , Rude? Let you come?”

“N-no,” Rude stuttered, his breaths coming out like someone was punching them out of him. “ _Please_ ,” he begged again as Reno’s thumb dipped down to press on his perineum. “ _Please_ fuck me?”

Reno bit his lip to stop the moan from flying out of him again. “Oh, that’s all?” he asked, glad Rude was too far gone to see how bad Reno was at acting out nonchalance. “Just want me to fill you up?”

“ _Please fuck me_ ,” he repeated, wet eyes opening up to stare at his partner. Reno felt his heart skip at the sight.

“Okay,” Reno mumbled, reaching for the lube to coat himself up again. Rude was soft and open for him, but Reno needed to fuck him hard and fast or he was _gonna die_. He scooted himself up closer, pulling Rude’s hips a bit up onto his thighs so that it was easy to sink his dripping cock into where it belonged. He bottomed out, hands sliding out to loop around Rude’s bent legs to hold onto him tightly. He swore, trying to adjust to him even as he felt an unbearable urge to praise the other man. “You feel _so_ fucking good,” he moaned, body curling over Rude’s so that their foreheads were close.

“Fuck me, please,” Rude said, and it was so _polite_ Reno almost laughed. Instead he pulled out all the way, causing Rude to thrash under him, until he slammed back in mercilessly. From there he kept up the brutal pace, deep, fast thrusts that moved both their bodies backwards against the comforter.

Reno stopped abruptly to catch his breath, while every breath passing Rude’s lips were full of whimpers. “I gotta come,” Reno whispered honestly, a bashful laugh falling out of him. “But I want you to come on my cock, first. Yeah?”

Rude’s eyes were honey, his voice still low even though the whimpers from him weren’t. “Please,” he agreed, “wanna come for you.”

Reno clenched down with all his strength, willing himself not to come at those words. Instead he pushed himself, trembling fingers looking for that little snap of leather at the base of Rude’s cock. Rude choked at the sensation of more blood rushing into tender flesh, arching up against Reno’s hips.

“God, you’re so big,” Reno praised, letting go of Rude’s legs so he could use both hands to stroke him eagerly. Focusing on Rude made it a little easier to stave himself off, rolling his hips back and forth into the other man while Rude just moaned in a way that implied he couldn’t think about anything else. “Come on, come for me, Rude,” he whispered, even the slow pace of his thrusts making him lose the thread. Rude usually took a lot more effort than Reno, but the way he _looked_ like this was more than enough to make up for it.

Rude, however, was just riding it out; he’d been on the edge for so long that now he was letting the sparkling, pulsating warmth coil sharply in his abs. It grew tighter and tighter until he threw his head back, orgasm nearly causing whiplash as he jerked up into those talented hands. Reno’s head was directly above it; thick lines of cum splattered Reno’s knuckles and mouth and Rude’s own stomach. Reno slammed into him one last time, all he was able to stand before he let Rude’s tight body drain him for the second time. His hands still moved over Rude, who was breaking out in full body shivers as the last of his climax was milked out of him.

Reno crushed their bodies together, kissing him until he was out of breath, rubbing his hands off on the comforter so he could grasp the sides of his face. Both of them laid quietly, panting, eyes closed.

Reno felt a twinge in his lower back as he slipped out of Rude, slowly sitting up. “You did so good, Rude,” he whispered, and Rude’s head rolled to the side. “I’m gonna unwrap you, okay?”

“Uh huh,” Rude said breathlessly.

The smile on Reno’s face was dumb as all hell, and he was glad Rude couldn’t see it and give him shit for it. Reno made quick work of the leg wraps, carefully helping Rude stretch each leg down with a long, achy groan. Reno leaned down to ghost kisses over the sharp imprints of rope patterns on his thighs, causing Rude to chuff quietly.

“Can’t believe how good you were for me,” Reno continued to ramble, each time the rope unwound causing more itchy shivers to roll through Rude’s sated body. “How good you _are_. Luckiest guy on Gaia. Putting up with my loud ass everywhere.” He freed Rude’s arms, and then leaned down over him, pressing their bodies close. “I gotta turn you over. You ready for that?”

“Mhm,” Rude said with a tiny, lopsided grin. Reno nipped at his jaw with a fond little kiss as he helped roll the other man to his stomach. With Rude rolled over he made much quicker work of the rope that wound up his back. He was careful as he pulled the rope out of the tender spots between his ass, trailing kisses down his back and over the reddened lines left behind.

“One more turn, big guy,” Reno murmured, utterly fond. With his arms free, Rude had no trouble rolling back onto his back. Reno settled his legs on either side of Rude’s hips as he slowly unwound the last of the harness knots, taking great care around his still softening cock. The final knots up near his neck were the hardest to get undone, Reno’s own mental exhaustion starting to settle in, but he was finally able to loosen it all and pull the bite of rope over Rude’s head. “Don’t move,” he purred down at him.

Rude’s eyes softened more, if it was even possible. “Don’t go, baby,” he whispered.

Reno felt something so visceral tug at his heartstrings he wasn’t sure what to do. He just shook his head. “Thirty seconds. I swear. Don’t move.” He placed two fingers over Rude’s pouting lips, and then threw himself off the bed, skidding into the bathroom to wet a hand towel and fill a cup of water. He shimmied out of his pants, leaving them forgotten on the floor, to return to his quarry.

When he went back in, Rude had kicked the coil of rope off the bed, shifting around to get comfortable. Reno put the glass down on the bedside table and then slid back onto the bed, nuzzling in to Rude’s neck and side. “I’m back, shh, hey,” he murmured, running the warm, damp towel over Rude’s messy torso. His kicking legs soon soothed as he gave in to Reno’s cleaning them up. He wiped at their faces, equally messy, and then anywhere else still sticky from not sweat.

Reno let himself fall into Rude’s arms then, the towel half hanging off the bed. They rolled to their sides and Rude’s hold on him only tightened as Reno’s fingertips slid over every tender rope mark. “So good to me, baby,” Rude murmured in to Reno’s hair, his broad hands crushing the slimmer form against him. Their legs tangled together. “Takin’ such good care of me.”

Reno felt something stinging at his eyes, so instead he hid his face in the striped skin of Rude’s chest. “Uh huh.” It was Reno, this time. Rude’s chest rumbled with pleased laughter, occasionally with a hiccup of surprise when Reno’s fingers teased the marks all over him.

They held each other for a long time, quiet and just writhing, until Rude’s warm breath ruffled Reno’s hair again. “You okay, Reno?”

Ah, his name. Rude had finally come out of that strange flavor of subspace where he had still been the biggest, baddest thing in the room. Reno had enjoyed that more than he’d care to admit. “I should be askin’ you,” Reno murmured, but lifted his face away from his chest long enough to look up at him. “But I’m good. Stupid good.”

Rude grinned indulgently, rolling onto his back and letting Reno splay out on top of him. This way Reno could trace the cross-crossing over Rude’s torso with little trembling movements. Rude watched him, unable to stop the dumb smile from falling in place. “Worried I’ll silence you?” he asked, catching the sight of the ring still on Reno’s finger.

Reno’s cheeks grew pink, the freckles standing out in the way Rude loved. “I just like it, is all,” he said, and buried his face into his skin again.

“If you feel the way I feel about what I got,” Rude hummed, pulling the other man up a bit so they could share lazy kisses, “then message received.” Rude’s hand moved to lace his fingers with Reno’s left, the unspoken message blaring between them, filling them both with an uncomfortably bright but damnably warm feeling.

Maybe, Rude thought as he let himself drift off with his arms possessively around Reno, he’d send Andrea a bouquet.

Maybe, Reno thought as he let sleep _and_ Rude wrap around him, he’d figure out what this strange, perfect, painful feeling was. As long as Rude was there to help him.


End file.
